On 4 May, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Mr Mukhtar Babayev and Gary Jones, bp’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkiye, visited one of bp and its co-venturers’ social investment project sites - the Green Heart tree planting area in Chobanabdalli village of Samukh district. Together, they toured the area, were briefed about the progress of the project and planted 100 Paulownia trees.
The Green Heart tree planting project is a two-year environmental programme aiming to offset carbon emissions through preventing soil erosion and desertification. The project is about planting 251,000 new trees and providing care for existing 110,000 trees planted earlier in Samukh as part of phase 1 of the project. In addition, an innovative tree planting system with water-preserving equipment and an advanced planting technique will be created on one hectare of selected territory in the Gobustan district. The project progress to date includes 50,200 trees planted in Samukh, 170,000 in Shamkir and 1000 trees in Gobustan.
Following the tree planting campaign in Samukh, Gary continued to accompany Minister Babayev and joined him in his next event in Yevlakh during which they together released 100,000 fish into the Kur River.
These two events were part of Gary’s two-day trip (3-4 May) to bp-operated facilities and social investment sites along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) projects.
The first stopover on the trip was the BTC pump station in Yevlakh where Gary toured the facility and received a full update on the safety and operational performance of the pump station. He then met with the personnel and led a village hall during which he discussed safety, operations and other key business-related activities. Gary also recognised a number of site personnel representatives and teams for their excellent performance, delivery and commitment to safe and reliable operations.
“We are proud of these people who day and night demonstrate excellent performance and commitment providing high integrity assurance of equipment and installations within this pump station thus enabling the three pipelines operate safely and reliably.”
Upon arrival in Ganja, Gary visited Ganja Autism Centre supported by bp and its co-venturers in its capacity-building efforts. He met with the staff and discussed the scope of services the centre provides in support of relevant families and communities.
The focus of the second day of the trip was to get acquainted with the progress of bp and co-venturers’ funded social investment projects and sign a Cooperation Agreement with the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University based in Ganja.
Speaking about the importance of the agreement Gary stressed that it set out a framework for the two organizations to cooperate closely in support of the university’s plans to develop publishing capacity and resources, as well as upgrade its overall research and development infrastructure.
Gary also made a tour of the new campus of the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University where he launched a new educational programme to be funded by bp and its co-venturers in support of capacity-building of local universities in Ganja.
More information about this new educational project is in the press release issued by bp today.