BAKU, July 23 (AFP) - Construction work on a section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline was stopped Friday after the Georgian government ordered a temprorary halt because of concerns about environmental safety, the pipeline consortium said.
Georgia's Environment Ministry called a two-week suspension so that it could assess pipeline safety measures near the country's Borjomi valley -- a pristine alpine area which the pipeline's opponents say is under threat from the project.
The stoppage comes as the multinational BTC consortium is racing to meet its deadline to complete construction of the pipeline, which will ship crude from the Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
A spokeswoman for BP, the lead partner in the BTC consortium, said that Georgian officials had asked for construction work to be suspended on a 17.6-kilometre (10-mile) section of the pipeline, which passes 15 kilometres from the town of Borjomi.
"We are complying with the (Georgian request) and we are evaluating the consequences," said the BP spokeswoman, in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. "On all other sections construction activities are ongoing."
"Although a decision of this type to stop work will inevitably impact the current construction schedule we nevertheless expect that the pipeline will be completed on time to deliver first oil to Ceyhan in the second half of 2005."
The spokeswoman added that environmental safety measures incorporated into the pipeline were "world class" and said that Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili backed the BTC project.