For the first time since the earthquakes, Azeri crude oil departs Turkey’s Ceyhan port

Arti Gercek reports that based on ship monitoring data and a Reuters trade source statement, the crude oil tanker Nordlotus was loaded with Azeri crude oil at Turkey's Ceyhan port for the first time since the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that hit Turkey on February 6.

The ship Alfa Baltica was reportedly docked at the Botas Ceyhan oil terminal on Monday. A commercial source speaking Reuters said that this tanker loaded Azeri crude oil. The earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6 had caused operations to halt at the Ceyhan terminal, which supplies crude oil from the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government and Azerbaijan.

British oil giant BP operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, through which mostly Azerbaijani crude oil is transported to Ceyhan and loaded onto tankers from there. The pipeline also carries oil to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. A BP spokesperson said that loading of Azerbaijani oil in Ceyhan resumed on Sunday. On February 8, the company had declared a “compelling reason" with regard to the Azeri crude oil shipments from Ceyhan. Likewise, oil flow in the Iraq-Turkey Crude Oil Pipeline System, which was stopped for precautionary purposes, restarted within 42 hours after the earthquake on the evening of February 7, after all controls were completed.