The information comes from Michael Towshand, Director General of BTC Co., Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline laying company. He addressed a news conference on the issue in Tbilisi today, reports the Novosti/Georgia news agency.
An official application to suspend works came from Georgia's Environment Protection Ministry. At present, a built Borzhomi Gorge corridor is being reinforced against soil erosion in this rainy summer.
The British Petroleum, mainline construction operator, is doing all it can for construction and exploitation safety, reassured the BTC boss.
The company is willing to assist Georgian government experts in everything with their appraisal, and has by now met all provisos for Georgian stretch construction authorisation. Whenever necessary, the BTC will offer all supplementary documents.
It is hard now to estimate losses the suspension may incur-but they will certainly be sizeable, what with several hundred workers and a huge amount of construction machinery to go to other line stretches for two weeks. Steps will be necessary, later on, against the schedule broken on more occasions.
The Azeri government proposed to the Georgian to arrange an intergovernmental ad hoc commission session, which will debate the line laying suspension. Azeri spokesmen are already in Tbilisi to specify the session terms and agenda.
As he recently met Lord John Brown, BP president, in London, President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia reassured him that nothing could impede pipe laying in Georgia. "We believe this country's president," said the BTC director.
