BTC Pipeline Will Be Operational Within `A Few Days'

By Mark Bentley and Ali Berat Meric

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, will be fully operational within ``a few days,'' the Turkish energy ministry said.

BP Plc and partners have started testing the 1,768- kilometer (1,100-mile) link following repairs to damage caused by a fire on Aug. 5, Akif Sam, a spokesman for the Turkish energy ministry in Ankara, said by telephone today.

``We expect petrol flows through the pipeline to return to a completely normal level,'' he said.

BP, StatoilHydro ASA and partners had to reduce production at oil and natural gas fields in the Azeri part of the Caspian Sea after pumping halted through the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1 million barrels a day, or about 1 percent of the world's supply.

Tanker loadings at Ceyhan will resume next week, BTC Co., which operates the link, said yesterday.

``The plan is to issue shipping schedules by the end of the week,'' Toby Odone, a London-based spokesman at BP, said today by phone. ``It will depend on how the pipeline testing goes.''

The Baku-Supsa pipeline, which pumps more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day from the Azeri capital of Baku to the Georgian port of Supsa on the Black Sea coast, is still shut on security concerns following the conflict between Georgia and Russia, Odone said.

Railway transportation to Georgia's Black Sea ports has been also suspended because of a damaged bridge, he said.

Shippers declared force majeure on exports from the Supsa and Ceyhan ports, a legal clause that exempts them from meeting contracts because of circumstances beyond their control.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara at mbentley3@bloomberg.net; Ali Berat Meric in Ankara at