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Blast goes off on Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline

The incident occurred in the Turkish province Kars, Azerbaijani media reported

ANKARA, October 4 (Itar-Tass) —— The explosion went off on the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, the Azerbaijani gas exports was suspended to Turkey. The blast went off in the woodlands in the Turkish province Kars, where the gas pipeline is running, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Thursday.

The fire did not break out, but the sound of detonation was heard in the range of 20 kilometres. Head of the local authorities Erdogan Turan confirmed this news report. “We do not have any information about the reasons for the incident. The emergency headquarters was formed to find the reasons for the incident,” he said. According to preliminary reports, the gas pipeline was ruptured. The gas supplies were suspended, but the specialists have to wait for the fuel to pump completely through the 30-kilometre section of the gas pipeline.

The BOTAS Company maintains the gas pipeline in Turkey, its specialists are working at the incident site. Some 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas are delivered annually from the Azerbaijani oil field Shakh Deniz along the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline to Turkey.

The blast has already gone off on this section of the gas pipeline on May 29. Then the gas fire torch flared up for 100 meters, the windows in the nearby houses were broken by the blast wave. The theory of a terrorist act is being investigated.

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The Collective Security Treaty came into force on April 20, 1994 to herald the emergence what would eventually become the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The six member-countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

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