BP Plc said on Monday that exports of Azeri oil by rail to Georgia had stopped after the line was damaged in Georgia, which accused Russian troops of blowing up a railway bridge. The halt further limits BP's options in shipping oil from Caspian Sea fields it manages.
But the main route, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) link to Turkey, may reopen in a few days, Turkey's energy minister said. "Rail exports have stopped from Azerbaijan to Georgia," BP spokesman Robert Wine said. "There's been some damage along the line in Georgia."
The disruption to Azeri supply has helped limit the decline in oil prices, which have fallen to below $115 a barrel from a record high of $147.27 last month on concern that slowing economic growth will limit demand. Georgia at the weekend accused Russian troops of blowing up a railway bridge west of the capital Tbilisi, saying its main east-west train link had been severed. Russia strongly denied any involvement.
The railway line runs from Tbilisind through the Georgian town of Gori, before splitting in three and running to the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi and south-west to just short of the Turkish border. Georgian officials on Sunday said they expected to reopen the bridge within 10 days. A spokesman for Azerbaijan's national railroad said a smaller, disused rail bridge was being prepared for use in the meantime.
The line can carry between 50,000 barrels per day and 70,000 bpd of Azeri oil to Batumi, Wine said. Other companies whose oil is shipped by the rail link include Azeri state energy firm SOCAR and Exxon Mobil Corp, he said. A shipping agent said oil tankers from Batumi were unlikely to be delayed as supplies should resume along the railway line through Georgia before oil held in storage is used up.
Comments
Comments are closed.