ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Firefighters Wednesday battled a fire that broke out overnight on the Turkish section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, disrupting westward supplies.
Officials with British Petroleum, the majority shareholder of the pipeline consortium, estimated the blaze consumed more than 12,000 barrels of crude oil in the overnight blaze in the eastern Turkish province of Erzincan, Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman reported.
The blaze raged for 10 hours before municipal fire teams managed to control the fire, though BP spokesman Murat Lecompte said the blaze was not yet extinguished.
Local media reports said Turkish authorities have ruled out a terrorist attack on the pipeline, though the cause of the blaze was unknown.
Separatists in the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia threatened Tuesday to bomb the pipeline if the Georgian government acted militarily.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline brings 1.2 million barrels of oil to Turkey each day.
