MORE THAN 50 human-rights' and environmental groups from 13 countries are protesting against the failure of the World Bank to rectify continuing problems with the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The groups outlined serious safety, environmental and human rights concerns with BTC in a detailed Memorandum to the Bank and other BTC project funders. The BTC pipeline, which has been controversial since its inception, has been built by BP to take oil from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean. Most of its nearly £2 billion cost comes from public sources, including the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The World Bank and EBRD's support for BTC places on them duties of due diligence over the pipeline, duties which the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) argue they have consistently failed to meet. The Memorandum lists an array of serious problems with the pipeline, including the possibility of safety failures and accidents; pending cases against BP at the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice; the withdrawal of a senior private backer from the project; construction failures; and deepening political discord in the region, including mass strikes by pipeline workers and the alleged torture of a local activist. The Memorandum will deepen pressure on the World Bank to take action on BTC, following a recent Sunday Times report in the UK that BP is locked in a £multi-million arbitration case with its contractors over a key BTC safety coating on the pipeline. According to the report, problems with the coating "could seriously delay the £1.8 billion project because it suggests the pipeline will corrode, and is therefore, in effect, uninsurable." Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House, one of the signatory groups, said: "It is quite simple: the World Bank and the EBRD haven't done the job they were entrusted to do with our public money. We have repeatedly raised concerns with the World Bank and EBRD – but they have failed to act. It is critical that the project is subject to an immediate independent safety audit before oil starts to flow." Kerim Yildiz of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, said: "We have been monitoring the impact of the pipeline on the ground and taking statements from the communities directly affected by it. It is very clear there are serious and well-documented concerns which the World Bank and EBRD have yet to address adequately."