PKK threatens further attacks on Baku-Ceyhan oil-pipeline

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kurdish rebels threatened more attacks on economic targets yesterday after claiming responsibility for a blast in eastern Turkey that shut down the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, an agency close to the rebels reported.



"Attacks on economic interests have a deterring effect (on Turkey)... As long as the Turkish state insists on war, such acts will naturally be carried out," Bahoz Erdal, a commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), told the Firat news agency.



The PKK claimed responsibility for a blast Tuesday night on a section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near Refahiye, in Erzincan province.



The explosion sparked a fire which continued to burn yesterday, triggering fresh jitters on world oil markets. The conduit, which supplies oil to Western markets, is expected to remain shut for about 15 days.



The PKK said the explosion was "an act of sabotage" by its militants, the details of which would be revealed later.



The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has sabotaged gas and oil pipelines in the past as part of its armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.



Erdal said the pipeline blast and other PKK attacks in recent weeks were in response to an intensified Turkish crackdown against the rebels, both inside Turkey and in neighboring northern Iraq, where they take refuge.



Turkish military action "has required us to boost our resistance in self-defense," he said.



The Turkish authorities have played down the possibility of sabotage of the BTC pipeline, and the Anatolia news agency yesterday quoted unnamed officials as saying that the PKK might be seeking publicity.



An official from Turkey's state-run oil and gas company Botas said Thursday that no trace of sabotage had been found but that a definite conclusion could be reached only after the fire at the pipeline was extinguished.



Refahiye's sub-governor had earlier ruled out sabotage, saying a fault had been detected before the blast.



Inaugurated in 2006, the 1,774-kilometer (1,109-mile) BTC pipeline is the world's second longest. It carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea fields, the world's third-largest reserve, to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to Western markets. It was pumping about 1.2 million barrels of oil per day before the blast.



The fire may be put out today or tomorrow and repairs finished 10 days later, a senior source at Turkey's Energy Ministry told Reuters yesterday, giving an earlier date than some expectations. Once the blaze is extinguished, efforts will be accelerated to assess the damage to the 1-million-barrel-per-day pipeline and bring it back on line within 10 days, an official said.



Analysts suggest the shutdown could last longer than Turkish officials estimate and British energy giant BP said it was looking at alternative means of delivering supplies to Western clients.



The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives, the AFP reports.