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The consequences of last week’s accident on a sub-sea pipeline stretching from Azerbaijan’s oldest Caspian oil field, the Oil Rocks, to the Baku Bay have been eliminated, president of the state oil company SOCAR has said.

According to Rovnag Abdullayev, the damaged section of the Oil Rocks-Dubandi pipeline has been replaced and the conduit is back on track.

Abdullayev said the accident had not caused suspension of output and crude was being transported to the shore by tankers afterwards.

“We halted the pipe for two days. There was a minor oil spill there. But the accident did not inflict any environmental damage,|” the SOCAR president said.

Some local media claimed that a major oil stain stretching for several kilometers emerged on the water surface after an explosion occurred on the pipeline on December 22. According to the reports, SOCAR learned about the accident just three days after it had happened and was keeping it away from public spotlight. As a result, thousands of tons of oil spilled into the Caspian over six days, inflicting considerable damage to the environment, the reports alleged.

Other reports maintained that corrosion was the probable cause of the accident on the pipeline, which was laid under the sea 30 years ago.

The Oil Rocks, called Neft Dashlari in the Azerbaijani language, was the first oil platform in the country, and is located within the settlement of Neft Dashlari. It was built in 1947. The Oil Rocks lies 45-50 km offshore on the Caspian Sea and extracts oil from the shallow water portion of the Absheron geological trend.*