PPG | Policy Solutions: Oil Companies and tandem water pipes

Oil Companies Should Provide Tandem Water Pipelines

Soon after the World Trade centre was attacked, there was immediate talk of an assault on the country of Afghanistan.

The Peaceplangroup campaigned against an assault on Afghanistan on the grounds that it was illegal under international law. The pursuit of the alleged perpetrator of the World Trade Centre crime (Bin Laden) was a policing exercise, and did not warrant a declaration of war or invasion of Afghanistan territory. Afghanistan

Other objectives which also could not be ignored at this time, was the wish of American companies to develop a Trans Afghanistan pipeline (Unocal) to couple the Trans Caspian pipeline with lucrative markets in India, Pakistan and China. This cast doubts on the motivation for the invasion of Aghanistan and to choose armed conflict in these particular circumstances, was not a credible case. The ease with which a search for Bin Laden widened into the destruction of Taliban rule seems to support this view.

Further campaigning has also taken place, by the Peaceplangroup and others, against the threatened war in Iraq, on the grounds that hidden objectives have not been adequately presented in the "balanced" view of our political leaders in the U.S. and the U.K. Iraq`s role in the Trans Caspian pipeline and Russian "Blue Stream" pipelines in the Black Sea, has not facillitated the proposed reduction in supply of oil and gas from the Middle East and Russia to the South Eastern areas of Europe, which will eventually supply the whole of Europe. Iraq

Further along South Eastern Europe, further democratic concerns have been raised over the effect in Turkey;

"Turkey is now divided into three countries, said Hildyard: the area where Turkish law applies; the Kurdish areas under official or de facto military rule; and a strip running the entire length of the country from North to South, where BP is the effective government.Kurdish Human Rights Project Bretton Woods Project

The Prism element of the Peaceplan policy document refined and proposed an "Ethical Impact Survey" to replace current modus operandai of businesses of Environmental Impact Surveys, but which ignored; cultural, social, political and ethical needs of global communities. Nowhere is this more true than in the oil industry which appears to be having great difficulty in making the transition from wonderful organisations that provide energy needs, to despised monoliths losing shareholder support on ethical grounds.

BP is a classic case in kind, as Europe`s largest company by capital, and operator of the Trans Caspian pipeline;

Donation	Mortality count	E'ee contrib.*	BP match	BP contrib.	TOTAL
Houston (floods)	Nil	60,000	60,000	250,000	370,000
Gujarat (26-1 earthquake) 358,000	30,000	54,000	54,000	250,000	358,000
Algeria (storms) 160,000	1,000	30,000	30,000	100,000	160,000
USA (11 Sept)	2,895	1,100,000	3,300,000	5,000,000	9,400,000
TOTAL	33,895	145,100	3,440,000	5,600,000	10,288,000

Sources: bp.com: Environment/social - Social investment - Humanitarian aid
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Timeline World Trade Center missing - Wikip

One can conclude from BP`s humanitarian aid figures, Gujarat`s aid of $358,000 for their 30,000 dead works out at $11.93 per capita, whereas the American September 11th figures work out at $3,246.98 per capita.

The 2001 report continues to record overall total donations have delivered $52.9 million to the U.S., 19.6 million to the U.K., $8 million to Europe, and just $18.9 million to the "rest of the world." Of the total sum arrived at of $94.7 million, over 50% is given to America, with less than 20% of the sum going to the "rest of the world."

Apart from the Humanitarian funds, the other approximately 90%, was spent on such woolly defined areas as Community Development ($m 33.3) Education ($m 29.5) Environmental & Health ($m 15.5) Arts & Culture ($m 8.2) and Other ($m 8.2) bp.com: Environment/social - Social investment - Data

In normal trading, B.P. has elected to build a 1737 km (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline to transfer oil and gas from Kazakhstan to the Indian Ocean costing some $2.9 billion (approximately 30 times the cost of its Social investment programme for 2001)

The pipeline cuts across 764 km of Afghanistan territory, much of which has been destroyed by wars with Russia, and then America on its search for Bin Laden and Al Qu`ida, and on through Central Asia to Pakistan CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap - OCHA IRIN

There now lies an opportunity for B.P. to cut its teeth on the Corporate Social Responsibility ladder, and demonstrate true value in a model which could transform the ethical and social role traditionally used by Non-Governmental-Organisations.

The building of a WATER pipeline and associated cleanliness functions alongside the oil and gas pipeline would have a twin effect for the company. First, it would attract Local, National and International Grant funding to assist with the waterworks. Second the trench built for the oil and gas pipeline would need to be slightly wider to accommodate a second water pipeline, but would share capital costs with the oil pipeline.

The development of a freshwater pipeline would demonstrate to the world that B.P. had its finger firmly on the social responsibility pulse. To the locals, it would mean water in times of drought, purified water which would delimit disease. A continuous flow which in time, could demonstrate that water from one region in times of drought, could be reversed when another area was in drought (by reversing the pump) which could assist in fusing relationships in volatile states and regions.