Diplomatic sources say, however, the new government that took power in Tbilisi last year, after ousting Georgia’s leader Eduard Shevardnadze in a bloodless revolution, could yet create more problems for the $3-billion project. The 1,768-km pipeline is being backed by the US as a way of exporting oil from fields in the Caspian Sea at the same time as achieving strategic goals. It is seen as reducing Russia’s grip on exports from the region, and will avoid routeing exports south through Iran, and will direct flows through NATO ally Turkey, which stands to earn considerable transit fees from the traffic. Similarly, Georgia will receive $1 billion in transportation tariffs from the line over the next 20 years. But with at least 50% of the construction work completed on the 248km of pipeline that crosses its territory, the Georgian environment ministry, on 19 July, requested BP to stop work for two weeks on a 17-km section that crosses the Borjomi region. “The new government [in Tbilisi] wants to look into the measures being taken on the pipeline to make sure it is secure,” a BP spokesperson said. But the delay could grow because the new Georgian authorities want to bring in their own consultants to look at the safety measures that BP has taken, and review new documentation they have requested from the UK company. The section of line in question skirts, but does not cross, the territory of the Borjomi national park, BP says. Environmentalists have attacked the pipeline for threatening the ecology of the park, which is a designated area of outstanding natural beauty and the source of a mineral water famous through the former Soviet Union. BP claims it has already implemented special conditions for the Borjomi stretch of line, such as installing extra valves to ensure rapid shutdown in the event of a leak, and extra sensors to detect any earth movements. It says that work is continuing on the rest of the pipeline in Georgia, adding that it remains on schedule to start pumping crude from Baku in Azerbaijan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan for export to world markets in the second half of 2005. Diplomatic sources in the region say the new government in Tbilisi may try to wring more cash out of BP and its partners to bolster Georgia’s efforts to bring the breakaway region of South Ossetia back into the fold. “This is about money. They need money,” one Georgian politician said. BP maintains that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has, in the past, said that he doesn’t want the pipeline project to be delayed. But the diplomatic sources said that Saakashvili and two of his closest political allies, including Prime Minister Zurab Zvania, have Armenian roots, and would sympathize with Armenia’s position of not wanting to see arch-enemy Azerbaijan receive huge oil earnings. The sources point out that work on the pipeline was halted just days before the visit to Tbilisi of Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan for cooperation talks with his Georgian counterpart. “These guys will try to do anything to delay the project,” the Georgian politician said. US engineering giant Bechtel is the contractor for the sections of the line that cross Azerbaijan and Georgia, while Turkish pipeline concern Botas is handling the Turkish end. The line is being built by an international consortium headed by BP, which has a stake of 30.1%, and includes Azeri state oil company Socar(25%), Unocal (8.9%), Statoil (8.71%), Turkey’s TPAO (6.53%), Total and ENI (both with 5%), Itochu (3.4%), ConocoPhillips and Inpex (both with 2.5%), and Saudi-US venture Delta Hess (2.36%). This story is courtesy of Alexander’s Gas & Oil Connections  www.gas-oil-power.com