Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 August / Trend / Rustavi-2, Georgian TV Company, has informed of three explosions on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The information has not yet been officially confirmed. Journalists left for the area.
"We have not received such information so far," BP Azerbaijan (BP is the operator of BTC in Georgia and Azerbaijan) said.
Anatoliy Nogovitsin, Deputy Chief of the Russian General Stuff, has stated at his press conference in the RIA Novosti information agency that the Russian Armed Forces had not bombed the pipeline in Georgia. According to him, these statements by Georgia are intended to make Turkey react and to involve one more country in the conflict.
"No one struck the pipeline," Nogovitsin said. According to him, practice shows that explosion of pipelines usually aggravate humanitarian catastrophes.
Oil pumping via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) was been suspended due to the fire However, the incident had taken place before commence of intensive military operations resulting from the Georgia-Ossetia conflict.
The total BТС length is 1.768km, including the 443km section running via Azerbaijan, the 249km section via Georgia and the 1.076km via Turkey. Pipeline construction started in April 2003 and it became operational on 18 May 2005.
A total of $4bln was spent for the construction of BTC pipeline, not including the infill of the pipeline, financial expenses and payment of the bank interests. The credit allocated for the project totalled $2.6bln.
The BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25.00%); Chevron (8.90%); StatoilHydro (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); ENI (5.00%); Total (5.00%), Itochu (3.40%); INPEX (2.50%), ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Hess (2.36%).
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