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CENN: - February 21, 2005 Daily Digest
February 21, 2005 15:13:53
CENN - FEBRUARY 21, 2005 Daily Digest Table of Contents:
1. Announcement -- The Caspian Development Advisory Panel
2. BTC Hoped to Alleviate Dependence on Arabia, Russia
3. Georgia: Black Gold, Hard Times?
4. Japan's Shimizu To Launch Warming Gas Emission Rights Business
in Armenia
5. annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment
6. Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment
7. SoS, Help, We are Being Assassinated
8. EIA Reports
1. Announcement -- The Caspian Development Advisory Panel
The Caspian Development Advisory Panel (CDAP) invites you to attend a
dial-in briefing on Wednesday, March 23 concerning its 2004 Report to BP
on the BTC pipeline and related BP-led investments in the Caspian
region. The Panel's 2004 Report and BP's Response were both released
earlier this week and are available on CDAP's website, together with
copies of earlier CDAP reports and communications (www.caspsea.com).
The dial-in briefing will begin at 9:30 a.m. (Washington/Eastern
Standard Time); 14:30 (London); 17:30 (Tbilisi); 18:30 (Baku) on March
23.
As you may be aware, BP established CDAP at the beginning of 2003 as an
independent external panel focusing on the social, environmental and
economic impacts of the BTC pipeline project as well as BP's related
activities in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The Panel visited all
three BTC countries in late October 2004, and its latest report to Lord
Browne, chief executive officer of BP, summarizes its findings and
recommendations. The Panel has benefited greatly from its extensive
interactions with interested NGOs and representatives of the SRI
community, and the Panel looks forward to a substantive discussion on
March 23.
If you are interested in participating in the March 23
briefing/discussion, please respond to this email and dial-in
instructions will be circulated. Interested parties are also invited to
attend the briefing in person at the Washington, D.C. offices of the
CDAP Secretariat, 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (11th Floor). Please also
RSVP if you plan to attend in person.
Please feel free to pass on this invitation to other groups or parties
with an interest in BP's Caspian investments.
Thank you.
Caspian Development Advisory Panel Secretariat
c/o Covington & Burling
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
CDAP@caspsea.com
www.caspsea.com
2. BTC Hoped to Alleviate Dependence on Arabia, Russia
Source: The Messenger, February 18, 2005
One of the greatest hopes had been the former Soviet Union that now
produces more oil than Saudi Arabia, and especially it's Caspian Basin,
whose fields are located in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The
pipeline through Turkey starts in Baku and carries oil from Azeri
fields.
When the pipeline was being developed in 2001, "there was a lot of
excitement that non Middle Eastern oil, especially from the Soviet
Union, would be an alternative source of oil," said Bulent Aliriza, an
analysts with the Washington based Center for Strategic and
International Studies. "The hype at the time was that the oil of the
Caspian would rival that of the Middle East."
Oil Companies looked for a way of bringing the oil to Western markets
and US officials insisted that for political reasons a pipeline should
be built through Turkey, by passing the Middle East and Russia.
But many Caspian estimates proved to be unrealistic, at least in the
short term. Experts now say the Caspian should in coming years pump some
four million to five million barrels per day, on par with Iran.
3. GEORGIA: BLACK GOLD, HARD TIMES?
Source: Eurasianet, February 18, 2005
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline could prove a vital source of revenue
for cash-strapped Georgia, pumping an estimated $50 million per year
into government coffers. Yet as construction on Georgia's portion of the
1,760-kilometer-long pipeline winds down, residents affected by
construction are wondering whether the benefits of the project will
outweigh the costs to them.
"Look, we're not against this pipeline. The only thing we would like to
know is the status of our compensation money," said Zura, one of about a
dozen protestors taking part in a November 2004 picket at one of the
pipeline's construction sites near the village of Agtakla in
southwestern Georgia.
With a completion date slotted for the second half of 2005, the litany
of complaints shows no sign of decreasing. Orchards have been damaged
and grazing meadows for cattle and sheep blocked by construction work,
Zura said. "The sums we were allotted by the local government and
British Petroleum [a leading member of the pipeline consortium] are a
joke, really," he said. Compensation for landowners ranges from $1,500
to $5,000 - a hefty sum in a country where annual per capita income
hovers around $2,300. At the same time, many compensation recipients
remain frustrated.
Much of that frustration comes down to misguided expectations, said
Manana Kochladze, who leads the Tbilisi-based non-governmental
organization Green Alternative Georgia. With some 60 percent of the
population grappling with poverty, jobs in Georgia, whether for casual
laborers or university graduates, can be hard to come by. When local
authorities initially announced plans for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)
pipeline, Kochladze said, "they made a big deal about employment, and
soon you had these rumors about up to 100,000 jobs that were going to be
created. Britsh Petroleum is not fully to blame for that."
The rumors are in keeping with the project's economic weight. Only 245
of the pipeline's total 1,760 kilometers will pass through Georgia, but
related construction still accounted for most of the country's 8.4
percent economic growth rate in 2004, according to the Georgian Economic
Trends, a quarterly report issued by the Tbilisi-based Georgian-European
Policy and Legal Advice Centre. Once the pipeline is complete, the
Georgian government will receive an estimated $50 million per year in
transit fees, about one percent of its gross national income for 2003.
Recently, the project, long dogged by controversy over its environmental
impact, cost and technical shortcomings, has made efforts to show that
it is giving more than transit fees back to Georgia's economy. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In late 2004, the BTC
consortium signed two protocols with the Georgian government that
envisage grant programs totaling more than $46 million to fund social
and economic projects in the pipeline area. British Petroleum has also
announced that it will invest $10 million in Georgia in a range of
projects, including education, healthcare, cultural heritage, energy
sector revitalization and the promotion of business and civil society
links between Georgia and the European Union. On February 1, the
Georgian government received the first $9 million of the BTC grant.
But in the Akhaltsikhe-Vale sector, the last Georgian portion of the
pipeline before it crosses into Turkey, little benefit is expected from
the BTC project once construction ends. In this impoverished, relatively
remote border area the pipeline has become a magnet for job seekers, who
otherwise depend on small-scale agriculture, animal husbandry,
remittances from migrant workers and limited border trade for their
cash. "Well, of course I'm glad to have this job. There's not an
overload of alternatives around here," said 23-year-old construction
worker Sergei, one of an estimated 250 locally hired temporary employees
on the project. "Our part of the job will soon be done, however. I have
no idea yet what will come for us after that."
An employee of one international organization who asked not to be named
agreed that the pipeline "has not brought much sustainable employment"
to the region. The income derived from renting apartments and houses to
non-Georgian pipeline construction staff evaporated when the project
decided to relocate their staff to a trailer camp on the edge of town,
commented one Akhaltsikhe-based businessman who gave his name as Samuel.
At the same time, he said, the fact that fewer jobs were created than
expected - locals cite an initial figure of 1,000 - have caused many
residents to feel shortchanged.
The presence of about 300 foreign workers, mainly of South Asian origin,
in the Akhalkitskhe-Vale sector provide further cause for
dissatisfaction. Residents claim that the imported laborers performs
tasks that Georgians could do just as well. The BTC project's Public
Affairs Office in Tbilisi did not respond to requests for comment about
hiring practices in Georgia, but, according to British Petroleum, a
total of 5,308 people worked on the pipeline in Georgia as of mid-2004.
About one-third of these workers were locally recruited, mainly as
manual workers, welders, machine operators, drivers, night watchmen and
cleaners. Once construction is completed, maintenance and operation of
the pipeline and related installations will require only 200 local
staff.
Potentially positive changes, however, have resulted from the project,
the international organization employee added. When the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ezurum natural gas pipeline comes online in 2006, local
residents hope to benefit from cheap natural gas for heating - an
environmentally friendly alternative to the firewood currently used.
British Petroleum has also repaired bridges and roads, and the amounts
landowners have received as compensation for property loss could be put
to good use as investment in local agriculture, observers say.
Samuel, the businessman, agreed. "[A] couple of hundred people hired is
not that bad, really. If they manage to save some money and invest it
well that will be good for the area. However, there's no guarantee that
that is going to happen on a large scale. "
"I'm indeed worried about what's going to happen once we're gone," said
one foreign, Akhaltsikhe-based British Petroleum engineer who asked to
remain anonymous. "Once the pipeline is ready and operational, the
number of sustainable jobs will remain even more limited than they are
now. I can imagine that it will lead to more frustration."
Editor's Note: Bruno De Cordier is a research assistant at the
University of Ghent's Conflict Research Group in Ghent, Belgium.
4. JAPAN'S SHIMIZU TO LAUNCH WARMING GAS EMISSION RIGHTS
BUSINESS IN ARMENIA
Source: Asia Pulse, February 16, 2005 Shimizu Corp. (TSE:1803) intends
to team up with Mitsui & Co. (TSE:8031) and Hokkaido Electric Power Co.
(TSE:9509) to start greenhouse gas emission rights business in Armenia.
The major construction company is hoping the joint operation will be
approved as a clean-development-mechanism (CDM) business, which allows
companies to gain emission rights in exchange for cooperating in efforts
to reduce emissions in developing countries. CDM is featured in the
Kyoto Protocol, which takes effect Wednesday. If the project is approved
as a CDM business, it will be the first such operation in Armenia. The
company expects to gain approval by the middle of this year. Under the
plan, Shimizu will build a power generation plant to produce electricity
from methane gas piped in from a waste material disposal site. The firm
intends to spend about 800 million yen on the project. Shimizu expects
the facility to eliminate about 135,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year,
which will enable the company to acquire emission rights.
5. PRESENTATION OF TAVUSH AND GEGHARKUNIK MARZES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON FEBRUARY 21
Source: ARKA, February 18, 2005 Presentation of Tavush and Gegharkunik
Marzes development programs will be held in Yerevan on February 21.
According to the Public Relations and Press Department of RA Government,
the main objective of the programs is the assistance to administrations
of the regions and implementation of RA Government strategic poverty
reduction program. This event will be a final opportunity to discuss the
Regional Development Plans before they are submitted to the Cabinet for
approval. This should take place next month. The meeting will mark the
completion of the first phase of the Armenia Regional Development
Programme, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID)
and implemented by the British consultants Oxford Policy Management.
Hovik Abrahamyan, the Minister for Territorial Administration, and
Thorda Abbott-Watt, the British Ambassador, as well as RA NA Deputies,
representatives of RA President's staff and central and regional
government agencies, the donor community, embassies, NGOs, contractors
and other potential development partners will take part. DFID provided
the funding to draw up the Regional Development Plans and has also set
aside ?2 million for their implementation in Tavush and Gegharkunik
regions of Armenia (?1 million for each). The main goal of the program
is to render assistance to the administrations of the regions,
development and implementation of the strategic program of the RA
government on poverty reduction. The program will last for 54 months, 18
of which will be spent on the development of the program. DFID has been
operating in Armenia since 1996. The main goal of DFID is to contribute
to the government of the republic in the issue of poverty reduction.
6. annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment
The US based Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is now accepting
submissions for its annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The
awards recognize the best environmental journalism in newspapers,
magazines, newsletters, television, radio and online. SEJ accepts
entries from anywhere in the world, as long as they include a complete
and accurate English translation.
The entry deadline is April 1. Each entry should be a story
predominantly on an environmental subject. The story must have been
published or broadcast between March 1, 2004, and February 28, 2005.
SEJ will hand out US$1,000 awards in nine categories. The organizers
emphasize that interested participants should choose the submission
category carefully, as only one may be selected per entry.
Entry form and details: http://www.sej.org/contest/index.htm.
7. SoS, Help, We are Being Assassinated
Dear CENN Readers,
Norway has a new form to tourism; this is assassinate babies seals to
blow. Canada kills them too.
Is this a sport?
Please see the attached file.
8. EIA Reports
Source: "Sakartvelos Respublica" ("Republic of Georgia"), February 19,
2005
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, "Martoili" Ltd. submitted
EIA report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain an
environmental permit for the activity of first category -Oil and Oil
Products Processing Mini Factory in Gardabani Region, Village Martkopi.
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, "Kapira" Ltd. submitted EIA
report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain an
environmental permit for the activity of second category -Development
and Management of the Hunting Farm "Kapiar" in Ambrolauri Region.
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, "Mamuli MPT" Ltd. submitted
EIA report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain an
environmental permit for the activity of first category -Oil Processing
Mini Enterprise of Periodical Activity in Senaki.
EIA reports are available at the Service of Environmental Permits and
Licensing of the Ministry of Environment of Georgia (15 A, Tamarashvili
Str., Tel: 39 91 81). Interested stakeholders can analyze the document
and present their comments and considerations until April 5, 2005.
Public hearing will be held on April 5, 2005 at 12:00, at the conference
hall of the Ministry of Environment. 68 A, Kostava str., VI Floor.
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Tel: ++995 32 75 19 03/04
Fax: ++995 32 75 19 05
E-mail: info@cenn.org
URL: www.cenn.org
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