Firemen struggle to extinguish the fire at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
A fire on the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in Turkey, sparked by a blast, has been extinguished, an official has said.
"Today we put the fire out, and immediately after that we started trying to cool down the pipeline. As soon as the cooling process ends, we will begin assessing the damage and start repairs," a source, who declined to be named, said on Monday.
The BTC pipeline explosion took place late Tuesday in a pump at a section near the eastern town of Refahiye, in Erzincan province.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the blast that caused jitters at the world oil markets.
Local authorities nonetheless dismissed the possibility of sabotage, stressing that a system failure had been detected before the incident.
The BTC pipeline carries oil from the Caspian Sea fields to Turkey`s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to Western markets.
The 1,774-kilometer (1,109-mile) pipeline was inaugurated in 2006. It is the second longest oil pipeline in the world after the Russian Druzhba pipeline.
Turkey said the pipeline will remain shut during the repair work which may continue for 10 to 15 days. The closure of the pipeline boosted oil prices.
MP/DT - PressTV