Azernews.Az

Concerns are mounting over the impact of the conflict between Georgia and Russia on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main oil export pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the West, despite Moscow's assurances that the pipeline is under no threat.
Russia has no plans to wage military action around the key pipeline, Vasiliy Istratov, Russia's ambassador to Azerbaijan, said with regard to the latest eruption of hostilities in Georgia's unrecognized republic of South Ossetia.
"We realize how important this pipeline is for the transportation of oil and we will safeguard its security. No military operations will be carried out in the vicinity of the conduit," he told a news conference in Baku on Monday.
On Saturday, AFP news agency reported that the Russian air force had struck the Georgian section of the BTC pipeline. Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said the area the pipeline is located in had been bombed by Russian warplanes. "It is strange that nothing happened to the pipeline," he added.
Russian warplanes again attempted to bomb the BTC pipeline on Tuesday, Georgian media quoted the country's official as saying.
"Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to halt military action [in Georgia] should be deemed as ceasefire. But as we can see, Russia staged an attack on the BTC today. Fortunately, the bombs fell aside from the pipeline and it was not damaged," Georgian State Minister for Reintegration, Temur Yakobashvili, told a news briefing on Tuesday.
President Medvedev on Tuesday ordered to end Russia's military action in Georgia. The decision came after five days of fighting in South Ossetia, which Tbilisi said aimed to restore the country's territorial integrity. Moscow had retaliated by sending troops to the region and pounding Georgian positions in the pro-Russian region.
Russian Deputy Chief-of-Staff Anatoli Nagovitsin has dismissed the Georgian reports, saying Russian armed forces had not bombed any pipelines in the Georgian territory. He said such statements "were aimed at Turkey's reaction and getting another state embroiled in this conflict."
BP Azerbaijan, which operates the conduit, downplayed the reports about an alleged bombing of the BTC pipeline by Russia and three subsequent explosions on the pipe.
"These reports are baseless. No explosion took place on BTC's Georgian section today," the company's spokesperson Tamam Bayatly said.
Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Russian air raids on Georgian territory posed no threat to the BTC security.
He told reporters that the pipeline was a trans-national project in which numerous countries and companies hold shares, therefore, it was unlikely that it would be targeted.
However, an explosion hit the Turkish section of the BTC pipeline last Wednesday. The Kurdish rebel group, PKK, reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast, however, the Turkish government dismissed allegations of a terror act having occurred.
BP Azerbaijan said oil transportation through the conduit was suspended after the blast.
Rovnag Abdullayev, President of Azerbaijan's state oil company, SOCAR, said transportation of oil to Georgia's Batumi and Kulevi ports, which are outlets for Azeri oil, had been suspended as well.
Amid conflict between Russia and Georgia, the port of Supsa on the Georgian Black Sea coast is only partially operating and oil tankers are not going into the Batumi port.
Georgia has said Russian bombers had damaged the port of Poti, where operations are currently at a standstill.
Some 200,000 barrels per day of oil have been leaving from Azerbaijan to Europe via Batumi and 100,000 bpd to Poti. After the BTC explosion, BP reportedly started to send some 45,000 bpd to Supsa. However, the company announced on Tuesday that it had closed the Baku-Supsa western route pipeline as a precautionary measure.
Another route for the exports of Azerbaijan's oil -- the Baku-Novorossiysk northern route pipeline extending to Russia -- has been shut. Energy giant Transneft, which operates the Russian stretch of the conduit, claimed on Monday the measure was due to "planned technical servicing" in the northern Caucasus region.
The BTC pipeline opened in mid-2006. The pipeline, which runs through Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, pumps oil produced from Azerbaijan's Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields in the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Analyst Hikmat Hajizada said Russia could bring about a halt of the BTC pipeline. He said Russian authorities had warned as early as during the construction of the conduit that it would run through a volatile region.
"They stressed that explosions will constantly rock in the region, acts of terror will be staged and local wars will emerge here. Instead, Russia was offering to lay the pipeline through a safe region, i.e. through its territory," Hajizada said.
The pundit said there was a great chance Moscow's plans would materialize.
Analyst Natalia Leshchenko of Global Insight said the current conflict should have little effect on the pipelines in the immediate future.
"The task of the Russian forces at present is to ensure control of South Ossetia...The pipelines would be in danger only if the war escalated," she told AFP news agency.
But she added: "If Russia started an economic blockade, then it might target the pipelines."
Russian armed forces denied Sunday imposing a naval blockade on arms shipments into Georgia's Black Sea ports.
Michael Denison of Leeds University, an associate fellow of Chatham House, said it was unlikely Russia would threaten the BTC pipeline.
"Attempts to take control of that pipeline would be extreme," he said.
While the threat to the pipelines is considered relatively low, analysts agree that the Georgian conflict could discourage investment in the Caspian region.