"We are not talking about sabotage. Our examinations revealed that the pipeline ruptured internally because of the pressure," Yusuf Yavaşcan, the governor of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, told the Anatolia news agency.The 40-inch-wide pipeline broke with a 200-meter-high explosion of crude oil. An observer in a nearby village informed the gendarmerie who in turn informed the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ). BOTAŞ officials closed off valves in the pipeline and constructed barriers to prevent oil from reaching nearby watercourses. The blast occurred near the main lake formed by Atatürk Dam, Turkey's largest dam. Yesterday morning, workers from BOTAŞ and the State Waterworks Authority (DSİ) filled in the stream that the oil reached with earth to block leakage into the dam. Earlier in the day, Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Güler said the explosion had caused an oil spill in the region. He said work was under way to clean up the area.
Even though Yavaşcan said necessary precautions were being taken so the spill would not reach the dam, the Cihan news agency reported that crude oil had partially reached Lake Atatürk Dam and that there was a smell of oil as far away as 50 kilometers away.
The governor said the spill covered an area of two square kilometers. BOTAŞ officials said the remaining oil in the pipeline will be pumped into tankers and then repair work, which is likely to last for five days, will start. The clean-up process could take up to a month. The Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline connects the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, carrying crude oil to Turkey. A similar explosion at the pipeline took place three years ago and 20,000 barrels of oil spilled in the previous leak. It took months to clean up the area, again, near the same lake.
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