Ceyhan loadings of BTC pipeline oil may begin in 2 days: Sources

ISTANBUL: Turkey's Ceyhan port could resume loading oil from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in one or two days using "manual" procedures, a Turkish official and a shipping source said on Saturday.

The terminal, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, was damaged in the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday. It is the storage and loading point for the BTC pipeline which carries oil from Azerbaijan as well as the Kirkuk pipeline from Iraq.

The Kirkuk pipeline resumed flows on Tuesday evening and a tanker docked at Ceyhan to load that day. A third tanker loaded on Friday. However, BP Azerbaijan declared force majeure on loadings of Azeri crude from Ceyhan on Wednesday.

The control room for BTC pipeline loadings there was damaged, the Turkish official said, but added loadings were expected to resume "manually" while the control room is repaired.

Loadings could begin within a day or two days, a shipping source said, quoting information received from the terminal. An official and an industry source had said on Friday that damage assessment and repairs were underway at Ceyhan and that exports from the BTC pipeline could resume from Sunday unless problems were found.