April 2004, International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA)
In Azerbaijan, BP and the Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation are working together to support national NGOs’ capacity development through facilitated monitoring and audit of the Baku-Ceyhan-Tbilisi and the South Caucasus Pipeline projects. The NGO Monitoring Programme was to focus on five key areas: environment; social issues; human rights; historical, cultural and archaeological heritage; and use of local suppliers for goods and services.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project represents a US$3 billion investment to unlock energy from the Caspian Sea, with the construction of a 1,768-km oil pipeline from Azerbaijan, through Georgia and on to Turkey, for onward delivery to world markets. The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) runs parallel to the BTC pipeline and will transport gas from the Caspian Sea to the Georgia/Turkey border. BTC (and SCP to a lesser extent) has been subject to an unprecedented degree of monitoring by international and national bodies wishing to assess the project’s openness to public scrutiny and compliance with international standards. BP initiated a partnership with the Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation (OSI-AF) to provide training, mentoring and facilitation to the NGOs doing the monitoring in Azerbaijan.
