BTE Pipeline Supply to Resume on June 8th

Gas supply from Azerbaijan to Turkey will resume later this week, following an explosion of a pipeline which caused operations to be shut down.

Last week, gas flow through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline, also known as the South Caucasus pipeline, had to be stopped due to an explosion and resultant fire on the pipeline in Turkey last week. The fire, which took hold last Tuesday, ceased supply from the Shah Deniz field to Turkey on the 29th of May while the pipeline was repaired.

100 metres of pipeline were affected in the explosion and had to be repaired.

Though the cause of the fire is not yet known, Platts news agency has reported that the pipeline may have been the subject of a terrorist act perpetrated by local Kurdish group PKK.

"You can guess whether it was a technical issue or sabotage," an official told the news agency in response to questioning. The resultant shut down is likely to have stemmed approximately 12 million cubic metres of gas imports from reaching Turkey every day since supply was halted.

Today, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) said that the pipeline, which is operated by BP, would once again be operational by this Friday (the 8th of June), with gas supply resuming on that day.