They said the Bank is holding its final discussions on funding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and initial indications are the project meets the group s stringent environmental and transparency standards. A positive World Bank verdict would unlock funds from other multilateral and commercial lenders and seal the success of the US-supported BTC that is dogged by environment and human rights concerns in the volatile Caspian region. The pipeline is to take crude from Azerbaijan and potentially Kazakhstan sections of the Caspian Sea to markets in the Mediterranean via a Turkish export terminal.
“There are indications that the board will make the final decision and there are some issues they have to look at,” said one Turkish pipeline official. “We see the mood is positive.”
The BTC, which will provide an export route for crude from the landlocked Caspian Sea, has been attacked by non-government organisations, which say the World Bank should not fund oil production projects because they lead to climate change and fuel corruption in the developing world.
As part of the activities surrounding the project, both the international financial institutions and BTC project groups have recently helped organize public hearings aimed at placating environmental worries about the project. Despite these meetings, however, regional activists remain concerned that the pipeline poses a considerable ecological threat. Various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have recently stepped up their campaigns to voice concern that the BTC route poses an undue threat to several environmentally-sensitive areas, especially Georgia’s Borjomi region, home to well-known mineral water springs. A spill has the potential to devastate the local economy in Borjomi, some NGO experts have said. They urged the BTC pipeline consortium to change the route to reduce the risk of an ecological catastrophe.
Those involved in building the pipeline, or financing its construction, remain disinclined to make route modifications. “So far, those meetings did not bring up anything that could in any way impact the project,” Ted Pollet, senior social development specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), told reporters.
Representatives of the BTC consortium described the two hearings held late in August, in the Turkish cities of Erzurum and Adana, as successful in fostering greater mutual understanding among the pipeline’s builders and its environmental critics. “They [NGO activists] are now recognizing the efforts we [BTC consortium members] are making on the environmental and social front,” a BTC representative said.
In Turkey, the BTC consortium is striving to establish a good rapport with residents by underwriting efforts to improve the socio-economic infrastructure. One such initiative is the Kars Sustainable Rural Development Project, under which BTC will provide business development advice to people living within a 4-km corridor of the pipeline. The consortium will also fund pilot projects, such as one to improve drinking water quality