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NGO Rejoinder

2 May 2018

Author:
Crude Accountability

Crude Accountability rejoinder to BP's response

...Crude Accountability has reached out to community members in four settlements affected by Shah Deniz II- Umid, Sangachal, Massive III and Ezimkend—and not one person mentioned meaningful consultations since 2011. According to our data, BP representatives who came to the communities in 2011 promised jobs, gave presents to the residents, and then were never heard from again. We invite BP to hold meaningful community consultations in all four settlements, where problems and opportunities for moving forward can be discussed...Crude Accountability can assist BP in this process to ensure that all voices are represented...Community concerns regarding the environment near Shah Deniz II are alarming.  The four settlements are located roughly 2-4 km away from the terminal. Their proximity to the terminal makes them particularly vulnerable to the effects of hazardous waste and pollution. Residents complain that a couple of times a month, in the morning, the air is filled with yellow, sulfur smelling smoke...People report physiological symptoms when these are the conditions.  Does BP conduct regular ambient air quality monitoring in these settlements or the surrounding areas? If so, we request that BP make public the monitoring data from the past 2 years...With the villages only 2-4 kilometers away from the Sangachal terminal, we are concerned about soil or water contamination, and impacts on subsistence agriculture in these villages. Has BP been monitoring soil or water quality near the Sangachal terminal to ensure that its activities do not lead to contamination? If so, we would welcome those records from the past 2 years being made public...Despite these unfortunate events, BP continues to do business as usual in Azerbaijan, operating its vast oil and gas reserves without the EITI platform ensuring accountability. Since Azerbaijan left EITI, BP extended its contract with the Azerbaijani state oil firm SOCAR to develop the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly (ACG) off-shore oil fields until 2050. In June 2017, Crude Accountability and 23 other international civil society organizations sent a letter to BP and other Consortium members requesting that the renegotiation of the contract for the ACG fields be a participatory process with civic input and consultations . Unfortunately, we have never received a reply to our letter. Instead, the BP-led Consortium extended the contract in September 2017, without any transparency or input from concerned stakeholders.  We request that BP work with the government of Azerbaijan to immediately publish the contract. Further, we urge BP to call upon Azerbaijan to rejoin EITI and make meaningful progress towards the Civil Society Standard. 

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