"There have been no shipments coming to or from the Batumi and Kulevi ports since last night," SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said on Azeri television.
SOCAR uses the ports to export crude and refined products. [...]
"These circumstances amount to force majeure and tomorrow, together with BP, we will examine the situation," Abdullayev said.
British oil company BP and SOCAR have a production-sharing deal in the Caspian Sea.
SOCAR would consider using the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline which exports oil via Russia to Europe, he said, although its relatively small capacity of between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes per day could pose a problem.
"All 47 people we have working in Kulevi left the area today due to the problem," Abdullayev added.
All Azerbaijan's ports are on the landlocked Caspian Sea, which means it has to use Georgian or Russian ports on the Black Sea or Turkey's Mediterranean outlet at Ceyhan.
SOCAR opened the Kulevi oil terminal in May after buying it two years ago. It planned to ship 5 million tonnes of oil and oil products annually through the facility.
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Earlier citing Georgian sources AFP reported that Russian jets targeted major oil pipeline.
TBILISI (AFP) — Russian warplanes on Saturday staged a raid near a major international oil pipeline that runs through Georgia but did not damage it, Georgia's prime minister said.*map - by AFP; /emphasis mine/
The 1,774-kilometre (1,109-mile) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline is the world's second longest and takes oil from Azerbaijan to Western markets.
Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Georgian television: "The area of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline was bombed by Russian planes. Miraculously, the pipeline was not damaged."
The BTC has a capacity of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day but is currently shut down after an explosion in a Turkish section which has been claimed by Kurdish rebels.
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