THE BAKU-CEYHAN PIPELINE CAMPAIGN

WHAT IT IS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO

Graffiti that appeared on AMEC offices in Leeds | Bigger pic

WHAT IS THE PIPELINE?
British Petroleum (BP) is leading the consortium of companies intending to build two pipelines to bring oil and gas from the Caspian oil fields to Europe. BP is also the operator and a similarly sized shareholder in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field and Shah Deniz gas field, which would supply the pipelines.

The project comprises two pipelines, one oil and one gas, both starting near Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea and passing through Tbilisi in Georgia. The oil pipeline would run to Ceyhan in Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea, while the gas pipeline would to Erzurum in eastern Turkey.

• The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline starts near Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, passes through Tbilisi in Georgia, and terminates at Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. It is being promoted by a Sponsor Group, a consortium of oil companies in which BP has a 34.7% stake. As well as being the largest shareholder, BP is the operator and the pipeline is, to all intents, a BP pipeline.

• The South Caucasus (gas) Pipeline (SCP) (also known as the Shah Deniz pipeline, or Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) is being promoted by a slightly different (though overlapping) consortium of oil companies in which BP is the operator with a 25.5% stake.

The pipelines system's backers intend to build the 1,750 km of pipelines through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey between early 2003 and early 2005. Once completed $21million of fuel would flow through them each day,

THE CLIMATE IMPACTS OF THE PIPELINES WOULD BE CATASTROPHIC
Once in full production, the pipelines would transport 365 million barrels of oil and 730 million cubic metres of gas each year. When burnt these would produce 177 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) each year. This is:

more than the pollution from every power station in the UK (163 million tonnes CO2)
far more than the pollution from every car, truck, bus and train in the UK (125 million tonnes CO2)
twice as much as heating every house in the UK (89 million tonnes CO2).
almost as much as the carbon dioxide produced by all road transport in California (186 million tonnes CO2).

The climate impact of this project would dwarf the combined impacts of all UK initiatives to combat climate change

The emissions from the oil and gas coming through the pipelines would be two and a half times more than the emissions saved through the UK's 12.5% reduction under the Kyoto Protocol (73,000 tonnes CO2) and ten times more than the emissions saved through the UK's target of meeting 10% of electricity demand from renewables (wind, sun, water power) by 2010.

In 2001, amidst much noise and publicity, the government announced £100 million extra funding to support renewable energy. This investment is a mere 3% of the investment in the pipeline.

OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
There are extremely likely to be major spills during the 40 year operating period of the pipelines. The amount of oil passing through the pipeline each year is enough to cover the entire land area of England in a slick half an inch (1.5cm) thick. It would require up to 1,000 tanker shipments per year

OUR TAXES WOULD PAY FOR IT
The companies in the consortium want to personally finance only 30% of the $3.3 billion cost of the oil pipeline. The remaining 70% would be financed by banks and public finance institutions. such as the International Finance Corporation ( a member of the World Bank) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. These banks are funded by our taxes, and UK government representatives sit on their boards. BP would also be looking for further taxpayer subsidies in the form of national Export Credit Guarantees for components of the project and whatever other hand outs they can muster.

In November 1988 BP boss John Browne said that the pipeline project would not be possible unless "'free public money' was offered to build the line". This "free public money" is our money.

THE NEO-COLONIAL AGREEMENTS
The BP-Turkey Host Government Agreement (HGA) is an aggressive neo-colonial instrument which exempts BP and other members of the consortium from any obligations under any current or future Turkish law that may threaten the project's profits, including environmental, social and human rights legislation.

Other provisions in the HGA include unfettered access to water, regardless of the needs of local communities, and exemption from liability in the event of an oil spill or any other harm caused by the pipeline consortium.

The agreement creates a corridor running through some of Turkey's most politically volatile regions. The corridor would effectively be outside the national government's jurisdiction for the lifetime of the proposed project.

Under the terms of the agreement Turkey has guaranteed the costs of its section of the pipeline- in effect writing a blank cheque to cover delays and overspends which could amount to billions of dollars. BP has a history of maximising its profits by demanding low taxes. BP aggressively lobbied to reduce their tax burden in the North Sea, Alaska and in Columbia, where it threatened to disinvest altogether.The head of BP, John Browne, made his name through pressuring the UK government ot reduce the tax costs for the Forties pipeline system in the North Sea.

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
It is very likely that major human rights abuses would acompany the pipeline. It would pass through areas of North East Turkey where the Turkish state has been at war to suppress the 40% Kurdish minority. The Host Government Agreement paves the way for the consortium to demand unlimited protection from Turkish security forces. Under the vague wording of the agreement, paramilitary units could be placed along the pipeline route to pre-empt "civil disturbance" or "terrorist" activities. Since the pipeline cuts repeatedly through villages and bisects established ownership patterns, people could find themselves cut off from their families or land and be forced to trespass regularly on oil company property in their daily lives.

In Columbia a similar situation has led to major human rights atrocities. The Columbian army, in part funded and equipped by BP, has organised assasinations, beatings and disappearances. They have used the strategic importance of the pipeline as justification for repressing peasant and union organisers . In June 1996 two activists who organised a protest against BP and strike on the pipeline were assassinated by the military.

There has been no real community consultation about the pipelines. Only after 10 years of developing plans for the pipeline system have the local communities been approached. They were presented them with the proposal as if it was a certainty.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Here's a whole page of ideas from Rising Tide about what you can do to support this campaign

LINKS AND DOWNLOADS

Articles on the pipeline by Mark Thomas for the New Statesman

Some Common Concerns- download a seven page briefing prepared by the Baku Ceyhan Campaign
Download Adobe acrobat version 146k
Download Word version 68k
(Note- if you have problems saving these files to your computer, click on the word Dowload using the right mouse button and chose the option 'save as'

Why Campaigners Oppose the Pipeline, by Anders Lutgarten, Kurdish Human Rights Project
Link (Observer Newspaper Website)
Download (Word version, 37k)

Links to other groups working on this campaign:
Baku-Ceyhan Campaign
Friends of the Earth
Kurdish Human Rights Project
The Corner House
Manchester Earth First