Western concern over oil and gas pipelines through Georgia

Western concerns are growing over the impact of bloody clashes between Georgia and Russia on a key oil pipeline through the region from the Caspian Sea to the West, analysts say.
While Georgia does not produce oil itself, US and European energy firms have counted on the pro-Western country-sandwiched between Russia and Iran further south-to host a conduit for oil and gas exports from Azerbaijan.
Since President Mikheil Saakashvili took power in 2004 two new pipes have been built, and the explosion of violence between Georgia and huge northern neighbour is threatening those, notably the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
As if vindicating those concerns, the head of Azerbaijan's state oil company said Saturday that oil exports had been halted via the Georgian ports of Batumi and Kulevi due to the clashes over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
That announcement came shortly after Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said that Russian warplanes had staged a raid near the 1,774-kilometre (1,109-mile) BTC pipeline, the world's second longest.
But British oil giant BP downplayed that report, saying it could not confirm any such Russian bombing. "We are not aware of that and I think we probably would be if it were true," said a spokesman. Inaugurated in 2006, the pipeline which carries oil from Azerbaijan on the shores of the Caspian to Western markets via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It is capable of transporting 1.2 million barrels a day.
BP has a 30 percent stake in the pipeline, which cost three billion dollars to build, along with some 10 other partners including US oil groups Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Transporting oil through the Caucasus is designed to make the West less dependent on supplies from Russia, which has shown worrying willingness to close the taps in disputes with other ex-Soviet states in recent years.
But Paul Stevens, oil analyst with the Chatham House think tank in London, said the possible threat to the BTC pipe is unlikely to scare oil markets in the short term. The pipeline has in any case been out of action since last week due to an explosion in eastern Turkey for which Kurdish separatists claimed responsibility, he explained.
"Even if the pipe is out of action for a week or two weeks it's very unlikely that this would have much effect on global oil supplies," he told Sky News television.