Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 August /corr. Trend S.Aliyev / Fire on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which broke down
in the Turkish section of the oil pipeline at night of 5 August, was
extinguished, the Press-Secretary of BP Azerbaijan, Tamam Bayatli, said on 11
August.
According to her, the operator of the Turkish section of the pipeline, Botas
International Limited, expects the place of the fire to get cold.
Investigations to study the reasons of the emergency will be carried out after
this, and its elimination will begin. The period, necessary for eliminating
defects and re-establishing oil transportation via the pipeline, has not been
determined yet.
Azerbaijan International Operating Company (BP-operated), which carries out full-scale development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields in Azerbaijan section of Caspian, reduced production because of the fire on the pipeline. BP does not announce volume of reduction, but as a result of July, it totaled 870,000 barrels per day.
The production was lowered because of the
termination of export along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the filling up
of reservoirs in Sangachal oil terminal of BP Company.
BP said that export of the oil, produced on Azeri-Chirag-Gyuneshli
fields, is currently realized through alternative routes - oil pipelines
Baku-Supsa and Baku-Novorossiysk, and also through railway to the Georgian Port
of Batumi. All points of delivery are located on the coast of Black Sea.
The total length of BTC is 1,768km, 443km running through Azerbaijan, 249 - Georgia and 1,706 - Turkey. The construction of the pipeline began in April 2003 and it was made operational on 18 May 2005.
The construction of BTC cost $4bln excluding the expenses incurred to fill the pipeline, financial expenditures and payment of the bank interest rates. The financial credit totaled to $2.6bln.
The shareholders of BTC are BP (30.1%), AzBTC (25%), Chevron (8.90%), StatoilHydro (8.71%), TRAO (6.53%), Eni (5%), Total (5%), Itochu (3.40%), Inpex (2.50%), ConocoPhilips (2.50%) and Hess (2.36%).
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