Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Shutdown Could Last 5 Weeks -Botas
Thursday August 7th, 2008 / 11h04
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline could be shut down for up to five weeks following a fire Wednesday, a Botas International Ltd. spokesman said Thursday. "It will be shut down for a minimum of two weeks but (the shutdown) could last five weeks," the BIL spokesman said. Botas operates the Turkish part of BTC, where the fire took place. U.K. oil giant BP PLC (BP) is in charge of the overall pipeline. BTC transports on average 850,000 barrels a day of oil and condensates from Azerbaijani fields operated by BP and other companies to the Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan in Turkey. A five-week shutdown would mean 30 million barrels not reaching the markets through BTC. BP is set to be hurt financially by the shutdown both as the operator of BTC and as its client. It had to reduce output from its Azerbaijani fields and is diverting some of it to Russian routes. By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; benoit.faucon@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=2wyYaVwLOIgDkadHhfCsKQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
