Georgia: Europe fears for oil supply as clash threatens pipeline

Western alarm is growing over the threat that the conflict poses to a critical oil pipeline that delivers oil and gas from Central Asia to Europe and the United States.

While Georgia has no significant oil of its own, a 249km (154mile) stretch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs through the country. This by-passes Russia, carrying oil and gas from Azerbaijan for consumption in the West. Parts of the $3 billion pipeline, opened last year and built by a consortium of Western oil firms led by BP, lie just 55km from South Ossetia.

BP played down claims by Georgia that Russian warplanes had staged a bombing raid near the pipeline over the weekend. The company insisted that the fighting posed no threat to the underground pipeline, but it said that an investigation had been started into the cause of a mysterious fire that broke out on the Turkish section of the pipeline just 48 hours before fighting began in South Ossetia.

Times Online