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European Public Bank promises €700 million for the Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline
Blog post -
Jul 25, 2014
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has promised up to €700 million for the disastrous Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline. In a statement the Managing Director for Energy at the public bank said “the EBRD will invest €600-700 million in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.” The Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline (ECMP) is a huge piece of infrastructure...

All that Glitters. Azerbaijan and the Olympics
Blog post -
Jul 10, 2014
Landing at Heydar Aliyev Airport in Baku I thought I knew what to expect. This was my second trip to Azerbaijan’s capital city, and I still had vivid memories of my first, the year before. Back then, I arrived at night and Baku seemed like one of the most opulent places on earth. The drive...

Gas grabs and 5 questions to power at the Caspian Corridor Conference
Blog post -
Mar 18, 2014
The Euro Caspian Mega Pipeline is a massive infrastructure system designed to suck gas out of the Caspian into Western Europe. Construction of the pipeline involves politics and finance as much as it does concrete building materials, and the conference I’m about to go to is one in a series of events attempting to make...
Hague heads to Azerbaijan amidst election controversy for “mega gas deal”
Press release -
Dec 17, 2013
On Tuesday Foreign Secretary William Hague will be one of the first European politicians to visit Azerbaijan after Ilham Aliyev’s internationally condemned re-election as President. Hague will be there to attend the ceremony for the signing of a pipeline agreement that will see two trillion cubic meters of gas pumped from Azerbaijan to Europe. Hague...

Fraud, Freedom and Fossil Fuels: Azerbaijan’s Elections
Blog post -
Oct 29, 2013
The fittings of Committee Room 6 at the House of Commons – thick carpet, green leather chairs, portrait of 18th century Prime Minister William Pitt and view over the Thames – suggest a solemn and sedate atmosphere. But last Thursday the debate raged furiously, back and forth. Mainly between Murad Gussanly, UK representative of the...
Platform in 50-minute live TV feature on The Oil Road, Democracy Now, 8th October 2013
Media coverage -
Oct 8, 2013
From Caspian Sea to Arctic to Middle East, How Oil Pipelines Threaten Democracy & Planet’s Survival. Interview with Anna Galkina, James Marriott (of Platform), and author of ‘Carbon Democracies’ Timothy Mitchell, with anchor Amy Goodman.

The Oil Road in York, 25th July
Jul 16, 2013
THE OIL ROAD: JOURNEYS FROM THE CASPIAN SEA TO THE CITY OF LONDON Platform, with the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, presents a free multimedia event on pipelines, fossil fuel dictators and the book The Oil Road (published in paperback by Verso in September 2013). Includes an extract from the new Oil Road afterword which won’t...

Signing of TAP agreement delayed as Aliyev tries to silence EU critics
Blog post -
Jun 28, 2013
This morning’s planned announcement that the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline has been chosen as the final part of the mega gas pipeline that would run from the Caspian Sea to Italy1 has been overshadowed by controversy over when the agreement will be signed. The official announcement and a statement by the EU Commission are both expected today...
Europe’s Keystone XL? The Planned Mega-pipeline
Publication -
Jun 27, 2013
Behind the closed doors of company boardrooms and government offices a mega-pipeline is being planned and promoted. This huge piece of infrastructure would carry gas over 4,000 kilometres from the Caspian Sea to central Europe, and in the process would lock Europe into gas dependency for at least the next 35 years. Such a project...

BP is planning a $40 bn pipeline and wants us to subsidise it
Blog post -
May 17, 2013
BP pushed for major subsidies at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) AGM in Istanbul last weekend, while hyping the grand scale of its Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline plans. Between speeches by Prime Ministers and sessions on “Supporting Growth Amidst Austerity”, oil companies revealed their intentions to spend $40 billion expanding Europe’s gas grid...

Even oil dictators need a social license to operate – Aliyev’s cultural spending spree
Blog post -
May 16, 2013
Whether it’s BP’s sponsorship of the Tate galleries, Shell’s funding for the Southbank Centre or Tullow Oil’s controversial deals with Sunderland football club oil company sponsorship of the arts is a familiar phenomenon. But what about oil dictators? Do they also need a social license to operate? What kinds of institutions would they throw money...

The Work of Art in Critical Times – Open Day Symposium at Falmouth University, 8-9 March 2013
Feb 27, 2013
Platform will be participating in a symposium at Falmouth University on The Work of Art in Critical Times. Held at the Falmouth campus on 8-9th March, the symposium will explore questions such as ‘how can the work of artists and curators be effective in critical times?’, ‘what are the various cultural, political and environmental values...