Tuesday, August 22, 2006, #158 (1178)

By Ekaterina Basilaia

An explosion hit a natural gas pipeline in the eastern Turkish province of Agri on Saturday night, causing a fire visible from miles away. Separatist Kurdish rebels are suspected of causing the blast. The pipeline, carrying Iranian natural gas, runs through the same region as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, but BP, the operator of the oil pipeline, was quick to rule out any possible danger to the BTC.

Initial media reports, quoting a paramilitary police official in the area, claimed that the explosion had actually hit the newly inaugurated BTC pipeline. Turkish officials later refuted the reports, clarifying that the damaged 2,557-kilometre pipeline, in use since 2001, belonged to the Turkish Natural Gas Pipeline Company.

"The problem that has occurred on the Iran-Turkey pipeline has not affected the BTC pipeline," the community outreach officer of BP in Tbilisi, Tamila Chantladze, told The Messenger.

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Posted by pichu at August 22, 2006 8:26 PM