An explosion has cut oil flows on the Turkish section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan
pipeline, local media reported.
Authorities at Turkey's state-owned pipeline company Botas turned off the valves
on the pipeline after an immediate loss in pressure following the explosion late
yesterday in the south-eastern province of Sanliurfa, the state run Anatolian
news agency reported.
The explosion left a four-metre-wide crater in the ground near the pipeline, and
Botas teams were working at the site of the blast, Anatolian said.
The cause of the blast was not yet known. The pipeline carried oil produced in
northern Iraq's autonomomous Kurdish north to western markets.
Following the explosion crude had spilled over two square kilometre area before
authorities turned off the pipeline valves, Reuters quoted the news agency as
saying.
The ethnic separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for a
blast on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in August, leading to renewed concerns
over security in Turkey, which is aiming to become an energy hub for oil and
natural gas.
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline was flowing at 480,000 barrels per day last month
from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on theMediterranean Sea.
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