LONDON (Dow Jones)--The cause of the explosion and fire in Turkey that shut down the 1 million barrel a day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline last week is still unknown, said a spokesman for Botas International Ltd., the operator of the Turkish part of the pipeline.
Turkish security forces are still inspecting the site of the fire and Botas hasn't received any information from them on the cause of the initial explosion, he said.
The Platts newswire cited an unnamed official from Turkey's energy ministry Thursday saying the explosion was caused by an attack by a terrorist group, probably the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The spokesman said it is too early to know this for sure.
It is also too early to say how long it will take for the pipeline to resume normal operations, he said. "The teams we have on the site are doing damage assessment," which may take several days, and figuring out how to proceed with repairs, he said. A spokeswoman for BP PLC (BP), which holds a 30% stake in the BTC, said the extent of the damage to the pipeline hasn't been determined and repair work hasn't started.
The pipeline, which starts on Azerbaijan's Caspian coast and passes nearby the Georgian capital Tblisi on its way to the Turkish coast, was shut down Wednesday last week following a fire. Its throughput has averaged over 850,000 barrels of oil a day in recent months.
BP and its partners said they are using alternative routes to export the oil, such as a 100,000 barrel a day oil pipeline from Baku to Novorossiisk in Russia, or rail deliveries to the Georgian port of Batumi, which has the capacity to export 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
One alternative, a 150,000 barrel a day pipeline from Baku to Supsa in Georgia was shut down Tuesday after a number of Russian bombs fell near the pipeline in Georgia.
A conflict erupted between Russia and Georgia over the weekend over the autonomous region of South Ossetia. The two sides have now declared a ceasefire.