BP's BTC pipeline tested ahead of planned restart

20 August 2008 11:46  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Testing has started on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline ahead of a planned restart at the beginning of next week, a BP spokesman said on Wednesday.

“BTC Co has taken the decision to start dynamic integrity testing of the line today before a move to full operation. This will involve some limited and intermittent flow of oil through the pipeline,” the company said in a statement.

The spokesman said that lifting at Ceyhan would be updated on Wednesday to start loadings from the beginning of next week. 

The 1m bbl/day pipeline, which supplies Europe with oil from the Caspian Sea oil fields, closed after an explosion on the line in eastern Turkey. Force majeure was declared on exports from Ceyhan.

UK’s BP owns 30.1% of BTC and Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar holds 25%. Other shareholders include US companies Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Norway's StatoilHydro, Italy's ENI and France's Total.

The BP spokesman said the company’s other 90,000 bbl/day pipeline between the Azerbaijan capital Baku to the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa remained closed on security concerns over the conflict with Russia and that the company was constantly evaluating the situation.

The company was forced on Monday to suspend shipments of 50,000-70,000 bbl/day of oil from Azerbaijan to Georgia following the destruction of a key railroad bridge.

The railway line runs from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, through the town of Gori. It then splits into three lines to the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi and southwest to a point close to the Turkish border.

The BP spokesman said that the company’s only remaining oil export route remaining in the region was now the 100,000 bbl/day line from Baku to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.

NATO on Wednesday accused Russia of failing to honour the full terms of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the EU last week, aimed at ending the fighting in Georgia.

According to media reports, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused  NATO of taking sides with Georgia, whose forces he said had failed to withdraw to their barracks.

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, said on Tuesday that some troops remained in place to protect South Ossetia's borders.

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By: Hilde Ovrebekk
+44 20 8652 3214

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