LONDON (Dow Jones)--Oil exports of around 50,000-70,000 barrels a day from Azerbaijan by rail through Georgia have been suspended after the destruction of a key rail bridge in Georgia, a spokesman for BP PLC (BP) said.
The Georgian rail authorities are looking for alternative routes, but the ongoing shutdown of the Baku-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, BTC, oil pipelines means that the 100,000 barrel a day Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline is the only western export route for Azeri crude, the spokesman said.
A person familiar with the situation in Georgia told Dow Jones Newswires that there is another rail track running over an older bridge not far from the one that was destroyed. It should be possible to freight oil by that track to Batumi in a matter of days, the person said.
Saturday, Georgian officials said Russian troops blew up an important bridge, cutting the east-west rail route that carries oil from Azerbaijan to Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi. Russia denied responsibility for the explosion, which collapsed a 45-meter section of the 220-meter bridge.
The 1 million barrel-a-day BTC pipeline was shut down on August 6 after an explosion at one of its valves in Turkey. Repairs have started but a spokesman for the operator of the Turkish section, Botas International Ltd., said it is still too early to say when exports may resume.
The 150,000 barrel-a-day Baku-Supsa pipeline was shutdown as a precaution during the brief conflict between Russia and Georgia over the autonomous Georgian region of South Ossetia. The South Caucasus gas pipeline, which was also shutdown during the conflict, resumed operations last week. A BP spokesman said the Baku-Supsa line runs closer to the front line between Russian and Georgian forces than the gas pipe and remains suspended as a precaution.