Azernews.Az

BP Azerbaijan, the operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, has suspended the movement of oil through the conduit due to a fire caused by an explosion that hit its Turkish section early last Wednesday.
Additionally, production from Azerbaijan's major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil fields, and the Shahdaniz gas field in the Caspian Sea, has been greatly reduced. Crude is currently transported via the Baku-Supsa and Baku-Novorossiysk western and northern pipelines, as well as railways. Also, extra options on storing the extracted oil are under consideration.
News of the fire on the $4 billion conduit, which is considered a strategic route for Western oil supplies, has driven up world oil prices.
The blast took place in Turkey's Erzinjan province and immediately ignited a fire. Reports cited a malfunction on the pipeline as a possible cause of the explosion.
Firefighters have managed to extinguish the fire on Monday. It is unknown, at this point, when repair work on the pipeline will be completed and how extensive the damage inflicted by the blast was.
Firefighting efforts had been hindered by oil left inside the pipeline since the flow was stopped. Some 20,000 tons of crude have burnt down as a result of the blaze, according to preliminary estimates.
The Turkish government has dismissed allegations of subversion, despite reports claiming the explosion was a terror act. The Turkish news agency, Jihan, said the Kurdish rebel group, PKK, had claimed responsibility for the blast and said it had been orchestrated by PKK suicide bombers.
The BTC pipeline opened in mid-2006. Over 1,000 km of the pipeline runs through Turkey. The conduit, which also travels through Azerbaijan and Georgia, pumps oil produced from the offshore ACG fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The exports are carried out under the agreement Azerbaijan signed in 1994 with major oil companies of the world, called the Contract of the Century, to tap its vast energy fields.
Britain's BP Plc owns 30.1 percent of BTC, while Azeri state oil company SOCAR holds 25 percent. Other shareholders include US giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Norway's StatoilHydro, Italy's ENI and France's Total.