This is a call from London Rising Tide (LRT), asking invitees to boycott this event, and to renounce any proposed remunerative collaboration with BP on the pipeline. (It seems that Mercy Corp, Save the Children (US) and Care (US) have already signed lucrative deals to monitor the pipeline, thus dispensing with any credibility they may have had in the NGO community.)

The February 24th meeting is a blatant attempt to use greenwash to disguise a devastating project which will see critical climatic and environmental destruction and flagrant violations of human rights. The Sunday Times article 'BP accused of cover-up in pipeline deal', (15.2.04 - reprinted below)) is an excellent indication of the way BP and the rest of the consortium have lied to governments and investors in its search for public and private finance, (not that those governments and investors have been exactly scrupulous in their own conduct!).

Collaborations between NGOs and corporations result in the manipulation of those NGOs as pawns, disguising those corporations’ true ‘profit above all else’ mindset and thus giving them unwarranted credibility. The situation here is no different.

LRT ask those invited to abstain from engaging in this collaboration by not attending the February 24th meeting, and to tell BP why they are not coming. We also ask them to oppose and monitor critically the pipeline not to mention BP itself. (It might be worth you contacting any group you know of to repeat the boycott call; by the way, Friends of the Earth and other members of the Baku Ceyhan Campaign were not invited and won't be attending.)

We will be taking action at the event, so feel free to join us at 9.30am outside the Radisson Edwardian. Come ready to toast the marriage of BP to the NGOs present!

Yours in hope,

London Rising Tide
Email:  london@risingtide.org.uk
Address: 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
www.burningplanet.org.uk
Rising Tide UK: www.risingtide.org.uk
(See also www.ermconcerns.com)

-------------
More info about LRT:

As you've probably noticed, climate chaos - also known
as global warming - is picking up speed, and it's the
world's poorest and most marginalised who are being
hit the hardest. We're also hearing more and more
about the way our use of oil is triggering wars, human
rights abuses, poverty and ecological devastation. At
the forefront of this destruction stands the oil
industry, happily pocketing the profits while buying
politicians and spreading top dollar greenwash to
distract us from its core activity.

So what can we do to rise above the despair and apathy
that this scenario creates? Taking direct action is
one way to be reminded of the enormous power we have
to change things for the better, (a power that our
leaders would rather we lost sight of completely.)
London Rising Tide (LRT) is a small group that meets
the system's violence with creative defiance, taking
direct action to confront the root causes of climate
chaos, and promoting local, community-run solutions to
our energy needs. It‚s also part of a worldwide
movement for radical, non-hierarchical,
non-discriminatory, ecological social change.

We feel the time has come to join the dots between
oil, war, capitalism and the way they're knocking the
world's climate off its axis. In the past year we've
taken action against BP's Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline,
including a 'Climate Criminals' Critical Mass' and a
'Carnival Against Oil Wars and Climate Chaos'. This
year, as well as carrying on with crucial outreach
such as stalls, publications and workshops, we intend to continue to expose BP’s shady use of sponsorship and to resist the increase in oil-guzzling 4x4s - they may be big but they certainly aren't clever!
------------
The Sunday Times - Britain, February 15, 2004

Insight

BP accused of cover-up in pipeline deal

ONE of Britain's biggest companies has been
accused of failing to disclose crucial information
to the government as it sought to secure loans
worth more than £1 billion to finance a key
construction project.

BP, the petrochemical giant, is alleged to have
been aware of safety design faults that could have
jeopardised the funding.

The disclosure, revealed in leaked documents to
The Sunday Times, will embarrass BP, which prides
itself on its closeness to Tony Blair.

Allegations of suspected corruption, mismanagement
and incompetence were all covered up as BP fought
a propaganda war against environmental campaigners
lobbying for public backing to be withdrawn.

At stake was one of the world's most ambitious
pipelines, which is intended to reduce the West's
dependence on oil from volatile regimes. BP leads
the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) consortium building
the pipeline.

Environmental groups say the pipeline, which runs
for 1,000 miles underground from the Azerbaijan
capital Baku, through the Caucasus mountains to
Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, will cause
an ecological catastrophe if it leaks. But the
British government has given assurances that the
pipeline had undergone "rigorous assessment" and
is safe.

It is understood, however, that ministers were
unaware of a report by a leading expert hired by
BP who discovered "serious flaws" in the
pipeline's design, which would make it highly
likely to leak.

Derek Mortimore, a world- renowned pipeline
consultant, was called in by BP managers in
Azerbaijan to assess a key material used to seal
the pipe's estimated 50,000 joints: its paint
coating.

The paint plays a vital role in protecting the
joints from corrosion. Unusually, however, for
such a large project, BP had opted for an untried
coating from SPC, a Canadian company. Mortimore, a
consultant to BP for more than 30 years, was
shocked at what he found.

"We are completely out on a limb," his report to
BP warned. "Clearly the use of (this paint) is
going to lead to a serious problem. (In the event
of cracks appearing) the cost for repairs could be
astronomical. The potential for claims against
(BP) is open-ended.

"I have witnessed many failures in specifications
. . . but the situation on the pipeline is unique
in my 41 years' experience. There is no question
in my own and many other people's minds that the
wrong system has been chosen through a seriously
flawed selection programme."

His fears were realised in November last year when
construction was halted after cracks were
discovered in the joint coating before burial. An
estimated 15,000 joints have already been buried
in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Work was suspended on
the pipeline until last week.

The findings had potentially catastrophic
implications for the project. Consultants estimate
that it could cost £500m to dig up the pipeline
and recoat the joints with a new material. This
has not been done.

Rival suppliers have also claimed there were
irregularities in the way BP awarded the £5m
contract to supply the paint. Two other companies
that competed for the coating contract have
claimed the selection contest was rigged.

The tender was controlled by Trevor Osborne, BP's
materials consultant. The Sunday Times has learnt
that Osborne's own consulting firm, Deepwater
Corrosion Services (DCS), was the UK
representative of SPC at the time of the selection
process. One of Osborne's DCS directors has since
joined the Canadian company. Osborne referred all
questions to BP last week.

The oil giant carried out a confidential inquiry
into procurement fraud allegations in November
2002, which apparently exonerated SPC and BP
staff. The company refuses to publish its
findings.

It appears, though, that such concerns failed to
surface when BP was negotiating with the British
government to secure a £56m export credit
guarantee loan to underwrite the project. The
credit guarantee was crucial - along with the
backing of the World Bank and the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development - in persuading
the commercial banks to lend £1.3 billion, the
lion's share of the project's total cost.

Under the BP-led consortium's agreement with those
putting up the money, it was obliged to disclose
any event that could have a "material adverse
effect" on the pipeline.

But a spokeswoman for the Export Credits Guarantee
Department (ECGD) last night confirmed BP had not
informed it of any significant problems. In fact,
the ECGD had only been informed of minor welding
problems in June 2003, she said.

On December 17 last year Mike O'Brien, the trade
minister, told MPs his decision to pledge £56m to
the project had been made after a "rigorous
assessment of the risks and a thorough review of
the environmental, social and human rights
impacts".

Today's revelations raise serious questions about
how rigorous the government's assessment of the
project was. MPs on two Commons committees are now
demanding to know whether ministers misled
parliament and whether they, in turn, had been
misled by BP.

The Conservative MP John Horam, a member of the
house environmental audit committee, said the ECGD
had failed to monitor the project properly and
should consider withdrawing its loan.

"If this is a dangerous project because of the
possibility of leakage, ECGD should exercise some
leverage on the situation," he said.

Yesterday, BP denied the company had acted
improperly. It said the pipeline was being
produced to the "highest" industry standards.

"The BTC consortium is confident that its
construction techniques and testing regimes ensure
that the pipeline will be laid safely and that it
will operate safely," a spokesman said.

"BTC is aware that certain allegations have been
made and these allegations have been thoroughly
investigated. Full discussions on this have been
held with the financial institutions and other
interested parties, where appropriate."