Turkey’s Botas cuts oil flow at Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline after explosion

ANKARA, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Turkey’s state pipeline operator Botas said on Tuesday that it had cut oil flow at the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline following an explosion near the southeastern province of Kahramanmaras.

In a statement, Botas also said a fire erupted following the explosion and firefighters and emergency personnel were deployed to extinguish the blaze.

The reason for the explosion, which occurred close to the 511th kilometre of the pipeline, was unknown, it added.

The accident is the latest in a series of supply disruptions that have driven global crude prices to 7-year highs.

Brent crude futures rose $1.30, or 1.5%, to $88.81 a barrel at 0157 GMT. The contract hit a high of $89.05 in early trade, its highest since Oct. 13, 2014.

The pipeline transports crude oil from Kurdistan for export from the Ceyhan port in Turkey.

Kurdish crude exports averaged 10 million barrels per month between October and December, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed. So far, 5.2 million barrels have been loaded in January.

The cargoes mainly head to refineries in Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy and Croatia, data showed.

Reporting by Orhan Coskun in Ankara and Florence Tan in Singapore; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Himani Sarkar

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