The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and gas pipeline is a 1,768 km long crude oil pipeline stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It is the second longest oil pipeline in the world and passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. IFC has invested $250 million since 2003 and the total project cost is approximately $3.6 billion. The project is operated by BTC Co., which comprises a consortium of 11 partners. To date, CAO has received 33 complaints in relation to the project ranging from individuals to communities to local organizations. In December 2004, CAO received a complaint from residents of Parnavizi Street in the village of TetriTskaro, who claimed that vibration from BTC construction vehicles caused dust, loud noises, and cracking in their residential buildings.

The complaint was accepted on Feb. 8, 2005. As a result of a number of other villages along the pipeline route filing similar complaints related to construction vibration, CAO included the TetriTskaro Parnavizi Street case in a collective assessment of vibration-related complaints. In response to the collection of vibration-related complaints, CAO recommended an independent study to assess whether vibration from blasting and construction traffic may have caused damage to the claimants’ buildings. In August 2005, BTC Co. commissioned an independent study. The study concluded that although there were shortcomings in the adequacy of the traffic vibration monitoring when compared with international standards, construction traffic was unlikely to have caused the cracking to residents’ buildings.