Azerbaijan claims new pipeline attack thwarted

Azerbaijan claims to have thwarted an Armenian attack on the Baku-Novorossiysk crude export pipeline.

The country's general prosecutor's office says that Azeri air defence forces "neutralised" Armenian rockets fired in the direction of the Khizi region to the north of Baku. "Some parts of the missiles fell at a distance of 250m from the strategic Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline passing through the village Sitalchay," it said.

This information could not be verified. Azerbaijan says it was an attempt "to deliberately destroy a large number of infrastructure facilities, creating a dangerous environment for crude oil and export condensate pipelines, the destruction of which could cause significant material damage".

Armenia has denied targeting pipelines during the renewed conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which began on 27 September.

The 160,000 b/d Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline carries crude produced by Azerbaijan's state-owned Socar to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Shipments are scheduled at around 18,000 b/d in the fourth quarter.

By John Gawthrop