Kurdish rebels on Friday threatened more attacks on economic targets in Turkey, days after claiming responsibility for a fire on a key oil pipeline, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as PKK, said it sabotaged the Turkish section of the critical Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline on Tuesday. Turkish authorities however, have not confirmed that the fire was the result of a sabotage.
The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted rebel leader Behroz Erdal as saying the group would “expand” such attacks on Turkish targets if Turkey’s military pressed ahead with anti-rebel operations both inside Turkey and in northern Iraq.
“As long the Turkish state insists on this war, such actions will justifiably be expanded,” Erdal was quoted as saying.
“We believe these actions carried out against [Turkey’s] economic resources have a deterring effect on its war to destroy the [Kurdish] people,” Erdal said.
Officials have said the fire — which was largely brought under control on Thursday but was still burning on Friday — could cause the pipeline to be shut down for up to 15 days.
The fire stoked supply worries among oil market traders and helped push global oil prices up to US$120 a barrel.
Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said on Friday the fire was likely to burn for one or two days more.
“We are expecting the fire to last for one or two days,” Guler said on Friday in Erzincan, in eastern Turkey, where the fire broke out. “The fire will burn under the control of firefighters and a technical team.”
He said authorities would make a statement on the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage when the fire was out.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline brings Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean for westbound shipments.
The pipeline, backed by the US, allows the West to tap oil from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world’s third-largest reserves, and bypass Russia and Iran.
The project cost around US$4 billion.
The pipeline can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, more than 1 percent of the world’s daily crude output.
Oil companies declared force majeure, invoking a clause that frees them of contractual obligations to deliver crude because of the prolonged shutdown.
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