AZERI ECOLOGY MINISTRY ACCUSES BP OF FAILING TO OBSERVE SAFETY STANDARDS

Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Media-Press

Baku, 9 August: Problems connected with the infringement of ecological safety norms in the exploitation of the offshore Azari-Ciraq-Gunasli deposits have still not been resolved. The volume of complaints against BP- Azerbaijan may go up, but it will not go down, Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyn Bagirov has said.

Consultations between experts of the Ecology Ministry and BP-Azerbaijan, the operator of the Azari-Ciraq-Gunasli project, have been going on since March this year. Bagirov said then that BP's position on the problem is constructive. "We expect that all problems will be solved soon and the case will not go to court." The infringements that were allowed to occur in the exploitation of the offshore Azari-Ciraq-Gunasli deposits were not deliberate and all the problems will be tackled within 10 days, Bagirov said at that time. However, more than four months have passed and the sides have not come to an agreement.

During drilling work on the offshore deposits, instances of the leakage of chemical solutions into the sea were registered. Previously, the Ecology Ministry prepared the appropriate documents in regard to the BP-Azerbaijan company. All the documents have been presented to BP and, if it is ready to pay a fine, then the problems will be solved, Bagirov said at that time. Otherwise, the Ecology Ministry will go to court. He said that the size of the fines against BP-Azerbaijan could be from 500m to 1bn manats [from 100,000 to 200,000 dollars]. The final sum of the fine will be defined when the negotiations are over.

Source: Media-Press news agency, Baku, in Russian 1030 gmt 9 Aug 04

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