Playing Our Part in the ‘Great Game’

The Caspian region is one with a rich culture and history, including the so-called ‘Great Game’ between rival colonial powers in the 1800s. Modern times have seen fascinating developments in the area’s oil industry; commentators have styled this as a new ‘great game’ to find untapped oil reserves and export them to markets.

The 1,750 km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is one of the most significant developments, transporting a million barrels of crude oil a day from the Caspian Sea. The pipeline passes through the Caucasus mountains in Azerbaijan and Georgia, then onwards through Turkey to Ceyhan marine terminal on the Mediterranean Sea.

Virginia has been seconded to BP in Baku as a Consultant to Caspian Exports Performance Unit, Environment & Social Team assisting BTC to fulfil its obligations in reviewing and updating oil spill response capabilities and Plans (associated with the pipeline) for a recent Financial Lender’s audit. The Auditors said of these Plans:

“The Wildlife Response Plans are well rounded and presented stand-alone documents that certainly are consistent with, and in many respects exceed, international best practices as described by IPIECA”.

“The Oil Spill Response Plan (OSRP) and related documents are of a high standard and meet or exceed international best practices” and it is “…the opinion of the reviewers (Auditors) that the content of the OSRPs and relaled OSR documents, when compared to other similar projects, is far superior to the norm”.

BTC were delighted with the work produced by Virginia and have asked her to continue working with them to assist in maintaining an effective oil spill response capability, part of which includes the re-writing of their contract for oil spill response services, due for renewal in June 2008.