Oil Firms Say Azerbaijan-Turkey Pipeline Back In Service
Monday August 25th, 2008 / 9h32
ANKARA (AFP)--A major fire-damaged oil pipeline carrying crude from Azerbaijan to Turkey was up and running again Monday after repairs, industry sources told AFP. "Tests were completed over the weekend. The pipeline is back in service," said an Istanbul-based member of the U.K. energy major BP PLC (BP), which operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan line. An official of the Turkish petroleum company Botas, which runs the Turkish section of the line, confirmed the conduit was "operational" and the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan was ready to start shipping oil again. "The tanks at Ceyhan have been filled and petrol exports can recommence," said the official. The BTC, the world's second-longest pipeline at 1,774 kilometers, was inaugurated in 2006 and carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea fields to Ceyhan. It can transport 1.2 million barrels of crude a day. It was shut on Aug. 5 after a blast in a pump at a section in eastern Turkey sparked a fire. Kurdish rebels fighting against the Ankara government claimed responsibility for the blast, though Turkish officials said they found no indication of foul play. The conduit faced further risks when tensions in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia escalated into a full-blown military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi this month. 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=J%2BM9SYVaqkJJ%2Bbbvug8zsw%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
