After two strong earthquakes in Turkey earlier this week, it is still not possible to resume the export of Azerbaijani oil from the port of Ceyhan to the world markets. The reason for this is the damage caused by the earthquake to the terminal, where Azerbaijani oil is shipped to tankers. Officials do not specify what the problem was, but according to the latest information from Bloomberg, the control room at the terminal has been damaged, https://haqqin.az/ writes.

A source familiar with the results of a preliminary assessment of the damage to the terminal told the agency that the transportation of Azerbaijani oil from the port of Ceyhan will not be restored until at least the end of next week. Previously, the terminal was expected to resume operations by the end of this week. As previously reported, BP, the operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, announced "force majeure" on February 8. Earlier a similar announcement was made by Botas International Limited (a subsidiary of the Turkish state company Botas), the operator of the terminal where Azeri oil is loaded on tankers. This wording means that there is a problem caused by an event that was not the fault of the exporters or the terminal operators. And, accordingly, none of the parties is responsible for the financial losses incurred by the shippers. BP has earlier confirmed that the leak resulting in the oil spill at the terminal has been fixed and specialists are now studying the situation. The company, as well as the Turkish Energy Ministry, didn't give any other details.

Currently, crude oil from Azerbaijan continues to flow through the BTC pipeline to Ceyhan and is filled into the tanks. However, storage capacity at the terminal is limited: it is unclear how long deliveries can continue before the tanks are finally filled. Vessel monitoring website Marinetraffic.com indicated that six oil tankers were docked off the coast of Ceyhan on February 8. Some of them will be waiting to load crude oil from Azerbaijan. As for the current situation, BP has not made a decision to reduce production in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields.

The capacity of tanks of Sangachal terminal near Baku allows it to ensure stable production for four days. In the short term such a situation can have no impact on the economy of Azerbaijan. But if the terminal cannot resume its work for a long time, the economic consequences will be inevitable. More than 90 percent of Azerbaijan's exports are oil and gas.