Environmental and Security Concerns Haunt New Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline

The newly coronated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has been dogged by all sorts of controversy, not least of which is the fact that its country of origin, Azerbaijan, is run by an all-powerful family dynasty which as with even worse dictatorships in other parts of the world, the US leadership has no problems cooperating with.

Now, a British environmental group has released a report (.PDF) which claims that environmentally concerned groups observing the pipeline construction process in Azerbaijan and Turkey were harassed, intimidated and at least in the case of one high profile activist, beaten.

Further, as Michael Dickinson over at Counterpunch! notes,

"...The pipeline will cause major pollution. Unlocking these vast oil reserves will directly contradict climate change commitments. The burning of these reserves will have a catastrophic impact on the earth,s climate for centuries. It will create more pollution each year than every power station in the UK, or the combined effect of every car, truck, bus and train in the UK, or twice as much as heating every house in the UK.

The pipeline route runs through the most serious earthquake zone in Turkey. The pipeline itself and the transport to markets will lead to greater risks of oil spills. Not to mention the risk of the pipeline becoming a target for guerrilla bombing campaigns."

Indeed, Dickinson notes that the pipeline route will pass through "8 different conflict zones," something which leads him to fear that "BP law" will be the rule of the land in the thousands of square miles around the length of the pipeline. As Hannah Ellis of Friends of the Earth notes, "...the pipeline legal agreements also give BP effective governing power over a strip of land 1,750 miles long, where the company will likely override all national environmental, social, human rights laws for the next 40 years."

Even that American puppet and revolution-assisted Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has decried his country's agreement with BP on the BTC as “a horrible contract, really horrible.” Says Ellis, "...these agreements have largely exempted BP and its partners from local laws – and allow BP to demand compensation from the governments should any law (including environmental, social or human rights law) make the pipeline less profitable."

In addition, direct American pressure led the Georgians to give in to BP's chosen route, which crosses a protected nature reserve. As was always feared, it as already started to pollute the environment:

"...the Georgian government suspended work on BTC for a week last summer, following BP's decision to start construction in the ecologically vulnerable Borjomi region, despite its repeated failures to obtain the necessary environmental certification to proceed.

According to the UK-based Independent, the resumption of construction two weeks later came as a direct result of political pressure. In fact the decision was announced immediately after an unscheduled meeting between President Saakashvili and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld."

Another little problem alluded to by Dickinson - that of maintaining pipeline security in a region where many (and quite diverse) groups would have an interest in taking a shot at it - is likely to prove very costly in the long term, as well as dangerous for whoever gets in the way of the hired guns of BP security. The likelihood that operating in this volatile area will necessitate armed intervention was posited recently by Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo:

"...If American oil companies are due to make mega-profits in the Caspian region, then the U.S. military will be doing guard duty along every inch of the BTC pipeline, ensuring 'stability' in a land of nomadic herders and exporting 'democracy' to a region formerly ruled by pashas, sultans, and various and sundry dictators.

We are, in short, being set up for another major military intervention."

Actually, the US Army itself won't be monitoring the pipeline - only the US-funded militaries of the countries involved. The Asia Times recently noted that

"...the US has so far spent $64 million to train Georgians in 'anti-terrorism' tactics for safeguarding the pipeline and has earmarked another $100 million for training and equipping a Caspian Guard that will protect American oil facilities and key assets."

Even in the best case scenario of now overt turbulence, at very least the US, Great Britain and other interested parties will have to constantly keep an eye on their new creation, which like all networks in the globalized age, is as susceptible as it is powerful - after only, one breakage in its 1,750 mile length will spell disaster.

Aside from the military, one also suspects, however, that local chieftains with great power and private "security companies" staffed by former Western military and intelligence officers will be paid off by the corporations involved to protect (or at least not destroy) the pipeline. For more on the history of symbiosis between BP and its local toughs elsewhere in the world, check out this article. The implications are not encouraging.