<article><p class="lead">Crude loading at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan resumed today, at least partially, after being <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2416956">suspended</a> in the wake of yesterday's devastating earthquake that killed at least 5,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria. </p><p>A cargo of Iraq's Kirkuk blend is in the process of being loaded at the terminal, a trading source told <i>Argus.</i> This crude is likely to have come out of storage as flows through the pipeline that links northern Iraq to Ceyhan remain suspended, according to a spokesman for Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government. Iraq's federal oil marketer Somo said it expects flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to resume later today "after checks on the infrastructure have been concluded". </p><p>Ceyhan is a key hub for crude exports in the Mediterranean, not only receiving supplies from northern Iraq but also from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan through the BP-operated Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. BP has told <i>Argus</i> that crude continues to flow through the BTC pipeline into tanks at Ceyhan and that these shipments have not been halted at any time since the earthquake. But the company said BTC Blend exports from Ceyhan remain suspended. BTC Blend loadings from Turkey are expected to restart by the end of the week, according to a trading source. </p><p>Turkish pipeline operator Botas said yesterday that it had not identified any damage to either of the crude pipelines on Turkish territory. A shipping source said that BTC Blend exports were halted at Ceyhan not because of the earthquake but because of bad weather, which is also complicating rescue efforts across the region. </p><p>The disruption to crude exports from Ceyhan follows a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep in the early hours of 6 February. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces affected.</p><p>Just over 1mn b/d of crude was exported from the Ceyhan terminal in January, according to Vortexa, of which 665,000 b/d was BTC Blend and 395,000 b/d was Kirkuk.</p><p class="bylines">By Aydin Calik, Felix Todd and Robert Harvey</p></article>
