The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, or BTC, oil pipeline will remain shut for about 15 days after an explosion sparked a fire in a section in eastern Turkey, an official told Anatolia news agency Thursday.
The blast occurred late Tuesday in a pump at a section near the eastern town of Refahiye, in Erzincan province.
The fire was likely to continue burning for another two days until the oil remaining in the pipe runs out, an official from Turkey's state-run oil and gas company Botas told Anatolia.
Repair work would then start and was expected to take between 10 and 15 days, the unnamed official said, adding that the cause of the explosion could be investigated only after the fire was extinguished.
"No trace suggesting a sabotage has been found so far, but the cause will become clear after the fire is over," the official said.
The BTC pipeline was inaugurated in 2006, carrying oil from the Caspian Sea fields to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to Western markets.