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| Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Three major lines currently transit Georgia. The biggest is the 1.0 mb/d capacity Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which carries crude oil from Azerbaijan to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan, from whence it gets transported by tanker to both Europe and the United States. It has been out of action since 5 August, due to a fire. PKK Kurdish insurgents claimed responsibility, saying they sabotaged the line. Repairs are now completed, but pumping has yet to resume. The main damage to BTC is likely to be to proposals to expand the line's capacity so that it can handle as much as 1.8 mb/d of crude. One question how keen Kazakhstan, the source of much of the projected 800,000 b/d of input, will be to pursue this export route. |