Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline may be extended

The government of Georgia has issued permission for the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The document was signed by Environment Minister Nino Chkhobadze in the presence of the country's President and State Minister. The permission was given provided a number of ecological conditions are complied with, otherwise the permission may be automatically annulled, the Environment Ministry reported. Thus, the pipeline will not be laid via sanitary zones of water bodies, first of all the Tsalkskoye water reservoir and Lake Tabatskuri. The same rule will be applied to the Borjomi gorge, where popular mineral water is produced. It has not been disclosed how much longer the pipeline will become as a result.

Trying to allay the public anxiety because of the pipeline being laid in the Borjomi gorge, where famous mineral springs are situated, President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze on Monday said in an interview with the National Radio of Georgia that the project's investors had proposed nearly "unprecedented" measures for environment protection.