Oil rose earlier today after a Turkish section of a BP Plc- led pipeline for Azeri crude was shut by an explosion.

The cause of the blast and the timing of the resumption of flows were unclear, a spokesman at the Ankara-based Energy Ministry said. BP and its partners shipped almost 1 million barrels a day through the Azerbaijan-Turkey link in May.

“We got a little bit of a boost from that Turkish pipeline story, though it looks like the market has digested that it wasn’t sabotage and BP is going to route supplies around it,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

BP spokesman Robert Wine in London said there is no impact on exports from Ceyhan and that the company is starting up another pipeline from Baku as an alternative export route.

Pipeline

The Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline may reopen next week after repairs, which will take “a few days,” said Mehmet Akif Sam, a spokesman for the Energy Ministry.

“It’s a huge pipeline and European consumers’ dependency on it is increasing,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna. “After dropping $30 in four weeks it’s easily possible for things like this to increase prices.”

Oil has lost more than $28 since touching a record $147.27 a barrel in New York on July 11 as unprecedented fuel costs prompted U.S. consumers to limit spending. U.S. gasoline demand fell for a 15th consecutive week, as motorists cope with high fuel prices by driving less, according to a MasterCard Inc. report yesterday.

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