What"s behind the next attack on BP?

Baku/28.11.12/Turan "A dirty political PR by order, or whether BP will lose operatorship of the oil consortium in Azerbaijan?", anonymous article under this headline appeared online on the site of  pro-government agency 1news.az

The article  is about recent critical articles about Azerbaijan in the British press (“Daily Mail” and “Independent”.) The reason for this criticism  the author links to recent events around BP,   and  it “negligent attitude to its obligations in Azerbaijan.”

 The article also mentioned the recent criticism of BP by the President Ilham Aliyev, for mistakes, resulting in decreased oil production in the fields "Azeri" and "Chirag".

"A month  is behind. What do we have in the end? Promises to improve the situation, some personnel changes in the Azerbaijani office  of BP and ... vile, obviously ordered anti-Azerbaijani campaign launched in the British media," says the article. It is emphasized that BP  is involved in the critical articles about Azerbaijan in the aforementioned newspapers.

As evidence, the author  makes a  tour in the history of BP,  its  activity in the Middle East, where the British company has repeatedly made political pressure on the authorities of the countries where it operated.

Thus, in 1950s - the nationalization of the Iranian government's oil industry, actually caused the rupture of diplomatic relations between Britain and Iran, as well as attempts  of Britain to initiate UN sanctions against Iran.

"The result - in August 1953, U.S. intelligence agencies with the help of the British company organized a coup in Iran, in which Prime Minister of Iran,  Mossadik,  was overthrown, and the British regained their impact on the Iranian economy," the article reads. 

By the end of 20th century, British Petroleum was repeatedly in the center of a big scandals; especially unsuccessful attempts of inundation  of  toxic waste into the sea, as well as attempts of collusion with other corporate-giants to set fixed prices for chemical products.

In addition, in the 90 years British Petroleum  was actively criticized for human rights violations: to protect its business in Latin America from the rebels, the company actually created its own army and supported repression of the authorities aimed  against the opposition.

"Against this background, the ordered anti-Azerbaijani dirty "PR campaign" is a real innocence," reads the article.

In conclusion, the  anonymous  author of the article reported the discussing by the authorities   the possibility of replacing BP, the operator of the consortium to develop the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli.

Further, the author says that Baku  is establishing increasingly close ties with the countries of South-East Asia and the Pacific region. Model of "East Asian Tigers" may be more appropriate model than the "Western-style" which is living a deep crisis.

Turan agency repeatedly tried to get comments on the matter in BP. However,  first the Public Relations department of the company  said they  were not aware about the article, and then promised to call  back themselves; however they have not called yet.—06D--