Written question asked by Simon Thomas (Plaid Cymru) on Thursday, 17 June 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 28 June 2004. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Monday, 28 June 2004 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what assessment she has made of the impact of construction delays resulting from having to rectify the faulty pipeline coating on the short-term financial viability of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project.

Answer: Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the impact of construction delays resulting from having to rectify the faulty pipeline coating on the short-term financial viability of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project. [179989] Mr. Mike O'Brien: The BTC lender group (which includes ECGD) asked WorleyParsons Energy Services (the BTC lenders pipeline facilities independent consultant) to provide a report on the issues surrounding the field joint coating. This report included an assessment on what impact the field joint coating issues would have on the construction schedule and cost implications. WorleyParsons concluded that there would, at the most, be a minimal impact on the construction schedule and that the cost implications would be `fairly small', although no final costing would be available until the recoating work was completed.

Secondary information