The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) as operator of the Azeri, Chirag, Guneshli project is pleased to announce the award of a grant for implementation of the project’s Community Investment Program (CIP) for the Bibi-Heybat area where construction works for the Central Azeri Compression and Water Injection Platform (C&WP) are currently underway in the ATA (Amec/Tekfen/ Azfen consortium) yard. The award is the outcome of a transparent and competitive selection process, which spanned some several months.

This CIP grant has been awarded to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) with whom AIOC signed a Grant Agreement on March 17, 2004.

The C&WP CIP is aimed at supporting communities in the Bibi-Heybat area in addressing their self-defined social and economic needs. The scope of work to be implemented by IRC includes a range of services to improve the economic and social development in Bibi-Heybat through strengthening the capacity of the communities, improving their living conditions and addressing their urgent needs, as well as increasing individual capacity through education and training. This will be achieved through community development, community selected economic, social and physical infrastructure projects, mobilization and training of municipality councilors, health, economic, education and youth development activities.

The value of this CIP grant is $250,000, with an additional $150,000 committed to be spent in the Bibi-Heybat area by the end of 2005.

The CIP implementation will fully use Azerbaijani nationals through IRC’s close cooperation with the local NGO Towards Civil Society, local communities, the Bibi-Heybat municipality and other relevant local institutions.

BP together with its partners in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, and Shah Deniz projects, is implementing world-class oil and gas development and export projects in the region. These projects present a great opportunity to make a positive difference to the people of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. As part of our efforts to achieve this, our partners and we in these projects will spend around $30 million between now and the end of 2006 on social and community projects. Our social investment project selection process is open and transparent, and is based on such criteria as impact, sustainability and active community involvement. Overall allocation of funds by individual projects is as follows: BTC - all three countries; SCP - Azerbaijan and Georgia, and ACG - Azerbaijan and some in Georgia, and Shah Deniz - Azerbaijan.

There were have three key themes around which we prioritize our social and community programs:

Community Investment - focused on the local communities close to BP-operated projects, the objective is to have a direct, relatively immediate impact, making a tangible difference to peoples’ lives (e.g., local job creation, health, education, habitat improvement, local infrastructure)

Private Enterprise - building local business capacity. This includes support for small & medium enterprises through technical assistance and capacity building, training on business ethics and corporate governance.

Good Governance - improving administrative capacity and transparency with particular interest in revenue management, civil society support and domestic energy.

Through social and community programs AIOC will work with local communities in collaboration with local and national authorities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders to ensure long-term, sustainable benefits in the communities where we operate.