BOTAS GENERAL MANAGER BILDACI DISCHARGED

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 002165 SIPDIS STATE FOR E, EB/CBED, EB/ESC, EUR/SE STATE PASS NSC FOR QUANRUD AND BRYZA USDOC FOR 4212/ITA/MAC/OEURA/CPD/DDEFALCO USDOE FOR PUMPHREY/ROSSI E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2013 TAGS: ENRG ECON EPET AJ GG TU SUBJECT: BOTAS GENERAL MANAGER BILDACI DISCHARGED REF: A) ANKARA 1967 B) ANKARA 1448 Classified by Acting Econ Couns Robert Silverman, Reason 1.5 (b,d) ¶1. (U) The Ministry of Energy has officially dismissed Gokhan Bildaci from his position as Chairman and General Manager of BOTAS, the state pipeline company. This move has been expected since the AK government took over in November 2002. Bildaci told econoff he learned about his dismissal when he saw it published in the Official Gazette today, April 3. He is expected to depart from his office today. No successor has been named. ¶2. (C) BP,s local BTC Co Managing Director Yashar Latifov (strictly protect) told econoff that the timing of Bildaci,s departure was bad, given that the project is moving into the construction phase and that operational problems have not yet been resolved (reftels). However, he said, BP has long expected Bildaci,s removal, and therefore has done some contingency planning. One option, Latifov said, was for Bildaci to replace BOTAS,s BTC subsidiary company's current Managing Director, who BP believes is incompetent. Latifov indicated that BP was looking at the legal ways in which this switch might happen. Another BP exec told econoff that, in effect, BP likely will handle management of BTC construction during this transition phase. ¶3. (C) Comment: Neither of the BP execs with whom we spoke were panicked about this development. Although BP execs clearly respect and trust Bildaci, and strongly preferred that he stay on, they have been planning for his removal. In our view, this is another blip that may have some temporary impact on BTC construction, but should not significantly delay the project. PEARSON