South Caucasus: BTE Pipeline Back Online

Supply has resumed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline, following an explosion which forced the pipeline to be shut down.

The explosion, which occurred on the 29th of May, caused a subsequent fire, damaging 100 metres of pipeline which had to be repaired. Though the exact cause of the explosion is not known, it is suspected that the explosion may have occurred as a result of a terrorist act, perpetrated by Kurdish group PKK.

Though the pipeline was expected to be operation by last Friday, the 8th of June, a spokesperson for operator BP told Bloomberg today that the pipeline actually resumed supply a day later on the 9th of June.

The BTE pipeline, also known as the South Caucasus pipeline, is the main gas pipeline from the Shah Deniz field to Turkey and to Georgia, carrying approximately 6.6 billion cubic metres of gas a year to those countries. When the second phase of the Shah Deniz project opens, this amount will be increased by 6 billion cubic metres a year.

During the shutdown last week, an approximate 12 million cubic metres of gas a day could not reach Turkey through the pipeline. This daily amount constitutes 16 per cent of Turkey's daily gas use.