Azernews.Az

"NATO was approached with regard to assistance in ensuring the security of the conduit at the time. But the group is dealing only with the protection of its own communication lines and is not willing to safeguard those in separate countries," Sharifov told the press Tuesday.
The deputy prime minister said the security of the BTC and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas pipeline was ensured by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the countries hosting the conduits.
"Safeguarding the BTC and BTE is one of the key issues both for the three host countries and the entire region," Sharifov said.
He added that under a decree issued by the Azerbaijani president, an inter-government commission has been set up whose members meet once in a while to table relevant issues.
The alliance's envoy to South Caucasus and Central Asia Robert Simmons said on a recent visit to Moscow that NATO might undertake the task of ensuring the security of BTC that he said could be targeted by terrorists. But the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said Baku was not in talks with NATO on the matter. The ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said energy was among issues on agenda in the Azerbaijani government's security talks with NATO and other international organizations strictly within the frames of general cooperation and that Baku had received no proposals on safeguarding the BTC.
Ibrahim said Azerbaijan could ward off existing threats on its own in line with its national interests.
Russia is the staunchest opponent to NATO's guarding the BTC pipe and has repeatedly stated that this would contradict its interests.
Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev told journalists that Azerbaijan relied on its own potential in protecting oil pipelines although the country could capitalize on NATO's experience in this area.
The BP-operated pipeline opened in July 2006. The oil pumped into the 1768-km conduit is produced from the major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashi fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea.