The BTC (Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan) project is a 1,770 km long pipeline which will transport up to one million barrels of oil per day from the Sangachal terminal next to Baku in Azerbaijan, then through Tblisi in Georgia, and finally to a new marine terminal at Ceyhan in Turkey. Eleven large oil MNC's from different countries (US, Japan, France, and Italy) are taking part in the project, led by British Petroleum (BP). This pipeline represents an important strategic interest for western countries, as it is a means to reduce the dependency on Middle Eastern oil and to avoid the political instability of the post-Soviet Russia. With the implementation of the project several issues have arisen concerning the consequences of the route, and the building and the functioning of the pipeline in the different countries where it runs. However, according to the Covalence Ethical Ranking 2006 (Covalence, 2007), BP is at the 4th rank in the ?best ethical quote score' category across all sectors, and at the 1st rank amongst ?oil and gas' companies in the same category. Indeed, as far as the BTC pipeline project is concerned, BP is in partnership with Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other organizations set up a ?Regional Sustainability Development Program' (RSDP) aiming at addressing critical social, ethical and environmental issues on a long term basis. Despite BP's efforts, certain NGOs such as Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth still blame BP for unethical behavior. This case outlines on one hand the power and the impact of large MNCs such as BP on countries in which they settle their business, and on the other hand the influence of NGOs on the behavior of businesses. Through this report, an evaluation of BP's approach to the BTC pipeline project will be drawn in relation to the criticisms levied by NGOs. The first part will be aimed at identifying the ethical issues raised by BP's activity and the stakeholders affected by the implementation of the pipeline project. The second part will focus on the assessment, through different ethical frameworks, of BP's action in relation to the ethical issues identified in the previous part. And finally, a judgment on BP's behavior will be established and possible alternative solutions concerning BP's action will be proposed.
[...] That is why BP's actions in those countries have raised several ethical issues. First of all, the building of the pipeline across Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan has a major impact on the environment. Indeed, the pipeline runs through areas of geological complexity, where several earthquakes lie and the outcome could be the rupture of the pipeline. Furthermore, it seems that the coating used for the BTC pipeline was not really appropriated and could result in the risk of corrosion and, therefore, in the widespread oil leakage. [...]
[...] and Matten D., ‘a stakeholder in an organisation is . any group or individual who can affect, or can be affected by, the achievement of the organisation's objectives' (2004: 50). The corporation is linked with several stakeholders, first from a legal perspective, meaning that the corporation and some groups of stakeholders are related by different sort of contracts, and second from an economic perspective. Stakeholders represent different groups that the corporations should take into account in their decisions-making, as they are affected by some ways by the corporations' activity. [...]
[...] Despite BP's efforts, certain NGOs such as Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth still blame BP for unethical behaviour. This case outlines on one hand the power and the impact of large MNCs such as BP on countries in which they settle their business, and on another hand the influence of NGOs on the behaviour of businesses. Through this report, an evaluation of BP's approach to the BTC pipeline project will be drawn in relation to the criticisms levied by NGOs. [...]
[...] Therefore, BP has nothing to win by offering bribery, as the BTC pipeline project have been well mediated and every mistakes could lead to losses, boycotts, etc. That is why dealing with corrupted countries represent a threat BP's business Corporate Social responsibility The traditional view of business's responsibility is focusing on shareholders. As they are the owners of the company, corporations have a direct duty towards them to make profits. However, as corporations can also have an impact on social and environmental issues; hence they have the responsibility to resolve what they cause. [...]
[...] Second, the corruption represents a major ethical issue in this project. Indeed, Azerbaijan and Turkey are highly ranked in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index with respectively the 125th and 77th ranks. The implementation of the pipeline should normally boost the economic development of the three countries; however, regarding their rank concerning the corruption, the spread of the benefits from the pipeline is far to be actually done. Most of corruption's case can be identified in Azerbaijan. For instance, some funds from BTC oil revenues which had to be invested for social aims were actually used to pay 25% of the Azerbaijan State Oil Company's share of the pipeline construction costs (Bankwatch website, 2002). [...]
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