"Dear congress participants! Let me welcome you, the participants of the 7th Baku International Congress "Energy, Ecology, Economy" on behalf of State Committee of Architecture and Building of Azerbaijan Republic and myself and wish you big successes in this forum. I think that the main topic of today's congress "Seismic design and safety of pipelines" is dedicated to discussion of the tasks which are of great importance not only for our Republic, and also for many countries of the region. Because, both the time and place, where large economic programs are carried out require joint effort to resolve arising problems during the realization of these programs.

On the other hand, the civilization of the last decades of the XX century, sometimes so-called industrial society, has forced mankind and biological environment to live in new conditions.

This condition, along with special attention to environmental problems, requires to search for the new ways of vital activity in all branches, especially in economy and productive forces' development. Because, in such conditions, restriction of economic development within the boundaries of one country or region becomes hardly realizable.

The result of the changes occurring in one of the countries, in a short time, shows itself not only in neighboring countries or regions, but also in all over the world.

Therefore, some people call the XX century as the century of warning.

Actually, warning us in XX century, particularly in the second half of it, nature had brought us to the understanding of the problems, which easily gave us plan of activity.

A. Alizadeh, academician of ANAS

It needs joint efforts and purposefulness.

It is known, that the builders carry special responsibility in maintaining people's vital activity and their safety.

By creating comfortable life conditions the builders ensure the safety of the basic natural and technogenous processes. However, sometimes the approved and realized by builders with good intention designs lead to more serious consequences for the environment and people's life, than the activity of other branches, due to their incompatibility to the requirements of the systems approach to social development. For example, million tons of toxic substances are annually emitted to the atmosphere. More than half of them are industrial emissions including building materials.

It is known, that the maintaining of vital activity is not only technical, but also economic task. Large investment devoted to safety and disaster preventing measures enable one to provide higher level of vital activity. Lately, a great attention is paid to the tasks aimed at the creation of high level safety of living conditions in the republic.

Intensive development of industrial production in the republic is directly connected with annual increase of investments into the national economy and individual branches, including oil and gas industries. On the other hand, it is known, that the territory of Azerbaijan Republic belongs to the active seismic zone, where strong earthquakes may happen from time to time.

Therefore, discussed in the congress questions are specially important for our republic. I would like to emphasize that the participation in the Congress of scientists and experts from Japan one of the advanced countries in the world with great achievements in development of science and engineering, and have gained very rich experience in solution of the problems under discussion will be extremely useful to our scientists and experts. Once again, I welcome all of you and wish you successes".

Addressing the Congress president of Middle East Petrol company A. Goozal said:

A. Goozal, president, Middle East Petrol company

"Dear Ladies and Gentlemen! It is a big honour for us to meet you as guest in the meeting hall of Middle East Petrol. Let me greet you on behalf of a group of our companies. We welcome you- distinguished scientists assembled from all over the world in the capital of Azerbaijan, the historical Baku city, to discuss the latest results of investigations and share gained experience to solve three inseparable global problems "Energy, Ecology, Economy".

More than 150 years have passed from the time when Baku and Asheron first in the human history gave their natural resources, valuable oil products to mankind.

You all are well aware what a big share Absheron is taking from the world technology, at the same time, as a result of true and wise direction of his Excellency president H. Aliyev Azerbaijan plays an important role in the world economy in the field of oil and other local products' transit. However, in connection with economic growth and intensive energy development in the Absheron peninsula Azerbaijan is facing serious environmental problems.

I believe that our scientists will find out ways to solve these problems. Meanwhile, every local or foreign company, which uses potentialities of this country, should be responsible for the damage caused by its operation. I hope that during solving these problems every one will do what concern his share.

Dear guests!

Let me remind of one wise saying. The Earth is devoted to us, one must reap as one has sown. We came from the Earth and we will return to it.

Before finalizing my speech, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and International Ecoenergy Academy for organization of this important forum and wish you successful meeting".

The Congress Opening Ceremony was attended by: ambassador of Japan T. Fugiwara, ambassador of Iran A. Gazai, ambassador of Libya M. Shakhtur, representatives of the embassies of USA, France and Italy, representatives of the State Oil Compuny of Azerbaijan Republic, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and other governmental bodies, international organisations and business circles.

Presentations were made by scientists and specialists of Azerbaijan, Japan, Germany, Iran and Italy. Issues relating to seismic design, safety and environmental aspects of pipeline routes are discussed at plenary and working sessions. In his speech at the plenary session the president of International Ecoenergy Academy (IEA) F.Aliyev told about the main directions of the Academy's activity, the projects developed in IEA on preservation of natural reaches of the Caspian basin and Absheron peninsula, environmentally sound and efficient development of energy resources, etc. Finalising his speech prof. F. Aliyev mentioned the importance of international forums in cooperation of the world scientists for solving global problems and said:

Prof. F.G. Aliyev, president of IEA

"At present the problems of global warming, irregular and inefficient use of natural resources worldwide, ever increasing energy consumption and monopolization can lead humankind to tragic consequences. International Ecoenergy Academy invites all world scientists to combine their efforts under the slogan "Energy, Ecology, Economy" to solve these global problems."

All participants intently listened to the lectures of prof. Sh. Takada (Japan) "State of the arts on lifeline earthquake engineering in Japan", prof. A. Hassanov (Azerbaijan) "Seismicity and seismic risk of Baku city", dr. G. Capobianco (Italy) "Fuel oil combustion improvers: a way to reduce air pollution" presented at plenary session.

Prof. Sh. Takada spook of the recent researches on lifeline earthquake engineering in Japan. He particularly said:

"Seismic behavior of lifelines has been investigated in Japan for recent two decades. Because today's modern cities depend heavily on lifelines for their daily operation, earthquake treats to lifelines becomes increasingly influential in proportion with the level of urbanization. Furthermore, as a result of population growth and environmental considerations, much more lifelines for utilities and transportation systems are now placed in underground. Since most lifelines, particularly buried pipelines are in networks having sources, transmission lines, storage facilities and distribution systems within themselves, damage to a single location in a lifeline network often affects significant portion of the entire system. Many earthquake disasters have shown that the well functions of lifelines will play an important role in preventing secondary disasters.

From the damage investigation of buried pipelines, tunnels and linear structures, it is found that the major seismic hazards to lifeline structures are: a) ground shaking, b) large fault movement/permanent ground displacement and c) soil liquefaction or lateral soil spreading.

The researches currently pursued on lifeline systems during earthquakes has six main branches: a) quantitative analysis of damage with a view for seismic strength of lifeline components, b) quantitative analysis of seismic risk studies of lifeline network systems, c) experimental investigations and site observations, d) seismic design code of buried pipelines, e) earthquake countermeasures of lifeline systems involving pre-, on going and post earthquakes, and f) cost benefit analysis for lifeline systems.

The main purpose during the studies on lifelines earthquake engineering in the past, has been anti-seismic design of the lifeline facilities. But considering the easy access and transfer information, not only increasing the ability for earthquake countermeasure for the facilities, but also the topics such as mitigation of the secondary effects of the quakes, fast retrofitting and research for minimizing damage are more paid attention currently".

Referring to the new topics in the future of lifeline earthquake engineering, prof. Takada gave some brief explanations about the main topics such as: real time ground motion monitoring system, disaster information system, application of geographical information system (GIS), and earthquake countermeasure based on risk management.

A. Hassanov, General director of the Republican Seismology Survey Center

The presentation of general director of the Republican Seismology Survey Center A. Hassanov addressed the seismicity of Azerbaijan and seismic risk of Baku. Characterizing different territories of the republic on seismicity, prof. Hassanov noted that many big cities of Azerbaijan (Baku, Ganja, Nakhichevan, Shemakha, etc) are located in seismic active areas. For Baku the basic seismic hazard originates from the nearest to Absheron (approximately 100 km), centers of Caspian earthquakes and from strong Shemakha earthquakes. A. Hassanov mentioned that the high degree of seismic risk in the territory of republic, especially in big cities, requires extensive seismic studies. For the assessment of seismic risk in a certain district it is necessary to determine the level of impact of the following major factors related to social and economic consequences of earthquakes:

-seismic danger
-force and repeatability of earthquakes
-vulnerability -damage rate of physical objects, lives of people

Specially emphasizing the threat of earthquakes to oil-gas pipelines passing on the Absheron peninsula, prof. Hassanov said: " There is a necessity for more detailed studying of seismicity in the territory of the republic with the purpose of revealing zones of the possible new centers of strong earthquakes, microdivision of the territory of Baku and other big cities into districts, evaluation of their seismic risk, and preparation of plans of fast reaction of the state structures". Following plenary session the lectures of professor of Civil Engineering University T. Aliyev "Complex anti-earthquake measures for pipeline routes",director of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering R. Mamedov "Anti-earthquake water supply engineering systems", professor of the Institute of Geology of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences F. Aliyev "Mapping ground water depth and general mineralization along the pipeline routes" caused special interest of the audience.

Prof. Sh. Takada, Kobe University, Japan

The first day of the Congress was concluded with presentation of the International Ecoenergy Academy's diplomas. The diplomas of the academician of IEA were presented to professor of Kobe University Sh. Takada (Japan), president of Middle East Petrol A. Goozal (Turkey) and professor of Dusseldorf University T. Bluhm (Germany). The diplomas of professor-doctor of IEA were presented to professor of Power and Water Institute of Technology N. Hassani (Iran), professor of Musashi Institute of Technology T. Koike (Japan), doctor M. Matsumoto (Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Japan), professor M. Zeynalov (Civil Engineering University, Azerbaijan) and doctor R. Mamedov (Institute of Geology of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences).

The next day opened by the lecture of prof. N. Hassani (Power and Water Institute of Technology, Iran) "Iran-Japan project for gas system". Explaining the importance of anti-seismic design and its role in the life of big cities N. Hassani said:

Prof. N. Hassani, Power and Water Institute of Technology, Iran

"So many big cities in the world have been using the Europe technology for development. However, there is not so severe earthquake in the Europe and even in most part of the USA. It means that earthquake has not been a main issue in the codes in Europe, while it is one the most important and destructive hazards in many cities located in the seismic active areas such as Iran. Therefore, those facilities which have been designed according to those codes are not so strong against earthquakes. The earthquakes after 1970 showed that the oil facilities of networks of lifelines suffered severe damage and the daily life in the quake-attacked areas was highly affected by the lifeline damage. Therefore, the Lifeline Earthquake Engineering was born during that decade. Although the word lifeline may include most of the infrastructures, however, it is mainly used for the utilities such as water, wastewater, gas, power and telecommunication systems. The main point in this field of earthquake engineering is to keep the flow in the lines or supplying emergency flow and quick restoration of it after the earthquake.

Iran is located in a very active area of seismicity. Almost 70% of the country is suffering from the earthquake hazard. The big cities in the country including capital Tehran are so sensitive to the big earthquake, which are historically repeated.

Earthquake countermeasures has been considered as a main issues for the safety and security of the Iranian citizen by the authorities. This consideration has been more emphasized on city lifelines during past 3 years. Several study have been started concerning the earthquake damage evaluation and countermeasure for lifeline systems such a water system, wastewater system and gas network in Tehran.

Most of these feasibility study have mainly been conducted through the joint study between with Japanese universities, companies and organisation. The new joint project between two countries was sign few months ago and currently is under progress".

Prof. F. Aliyev

G. Capobianco, Italy

Prof. N. Hassani gave general information about the seismic activity in the city of Tehran and its gas system, while describing some main points on the earthquake vulnerability and countermeasures in Tehran Gas System. In the lectures of professor T. Koike (Musashi Institute of Technology, Japan) "Japanese seismic design code for water supply systems after the Kobe Earthquake" and doctor J. Ueno and professor Sh. Takada (Osaka Gas Co. Ltd., Kobe University, Japan) "Japanese seismic design code for gas supply system after the Kobe Earthquake" the information on the seismic design guidelines developed in Japan after the Kobe Earthquake (1995) for water and gas supply system was presented.

The lecture of H. Yamada, Y. Ogawa and Y. Yanou (Osaka Gas Co. Ltd., Japan) was dedicated to damage of gas pipelines caused by the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and supply restoration activities. In their report on the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and anti-earthquake measures of the Osaka Gas departments the authors particularly stated:

"The Hanshin Earthquake shook the western Japan with strong jolts on January 17,1995. The Earthquake having an intensity of 7 by MAJ, highest recorded in Japan since Fukui Earthquake of 1948, caused over 5,500 deaths and nearly 200,000 houses to collapse or damaged. Transportation facilities severely damaged. Three railways, JR (Japan Railway), Hankyu and Hanshin, connecting Osaka and Kobe, and Kobe line and Wangan line of Hanshin Expressway were disrupted.

Damage on the lifeline was also devastating. 2.6 million households suffered from power outage, 1.2 million households were cut off from water supply, 380,000 telephone lines were disrupted and 860,000 households were cut off from town gas supply. Furthermore, over 300,000 people who lost their homes or could not return to their unsafe homes were forced to take shelters in schools or tents amid the continuing aftershocks in the mid-winter cold".

The speaker gave detailed information on anti-earthquake measures of Osaka Gas company and noted that when gas facilities are damaged by a large earthquake, it is inevitable to take longer time for repair work of gas facilities than those of electric facilities or water supply facilities, because most of the gas facilities are buried underground and gas leakage is prohibited in order to prevent secondary disasters. It is essential for gas company to previously install highly earthquake-resistant facilities in order to prevent damage of gas facilities from spreading.

T. Koike, Musashi Institute of Technology, Japan

In order to prevent secondary disasters and spread of gas suspended area after an earthquake, immediate actions such as collection and communication of information about damage, setting a headquarters, and judgment of gas supply suspension are needed. Emergency measures which enables gas company to do such an immediate action, must be established before an earthquake.

The committee on examining anti-earthquake measures for gas service was organized after the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. General anti-earthquake measures for gas service was discussed concretely and in detail by the committee, considering the states affected by the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. The report on improvement of anti-earthquake measures for gas service was submitted by the committee after one-year discussion. Furthermore, the five-year program of anti-earthquake measures for transmission and distribution departments of Osaka Gas has been planned on the basis of lessons derived from the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake and the report of the committee on examining anti-earthquake measures for gas service.

In the lecture of professor Sh. Takada, doctor M. Matsumoto, Sh. Fujita and T. Tajima (University of Kobe, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., Japan) "National project of seismic design code for gas pipeline due to liquefaction" the outline of the design procedure according to recommended practice for the design of gas transmission pipelines in the areas subject to liquefaction on the basis of the results of five-years investigation on design method of gas pipelines due to liquefaction was presented.

The lectures of Y. Ogawa, Y. Yanou and H. Yamada "Earthquake disaster prevention measures of gas supply system in Osaka Gas Co., Ltd." and Y. Yanou, D. Okai and T. Nishizaki "Development of large capacity LNG aboveground storage with PC outer tank" dedicated to Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. developments in the area of gas service, seismic design and safety of gas system facilities caused active discussion among the participants.

К. Кerimov, corr.-member of ANAS

Problems related to nature protection, environmental issues and safety of pipelines were also discussed during the Congress. In the lectures of professor T. Bluhm (Germany) "Waste water treatment container-system fischtechnic", doctor A. Mamedov (Azerbaijan SRDI "Sucanal") "Taking supplementary technical-engineering measures in the areas, where the river of Kura crosses pipeline routes" and doctor E. Aliyev and N. Mamedzade "Reducing harmful environmental impact during transportation of oil and gas on the same passage" the main attention was paid to environmental protection and safety problems.

In a press -conference held on June 27 between the first and second sessions the congress organisers, distinguished Azeri and foreign scientists answered numerous questions of press representatives.

The 7-th Baku Congress was concluded by the discussion and adoption of the CONGRESS RESOLUTION

Dr. J. Ueno, Research Institute of Lifeline Engineering Co. Ltd. Japan	Y. Ogawa, Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., Japan	Prof. Sh. Takada responds to the questions of press representatives