ANKARA, August 20, 2008 (AFP) - British energy giant BP said Wednesday that tests were underway on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (BTC) after repairs were completed on the fire-damaged conduit.

'We began the dynamic testing of the pipeline Wednesday. This is a test that needs to be done before full operation,' company spokesman Murat Lecompte told AFP.

He could not say when full operation would resume exactly, but added that they expected to start loading oil to the ships at the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast 'early next week'.

The BTC line, which BP operates, was shut on August 5 after a blast in a pump at a section in eastern Turkey sparked a fire. The blaze was put out six days later.

Kurdish rebels waging a 24-year armed campaign against the Ankara government claimed responsibility for the blast, though Turkish officials say they have found no indication of foul play.

The world's second-longest pipeline at 1,774 kilometres (1,109 miles), the BTC pipeline, inaugurated in 2006, carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea fields to Ceyhan, and is capable of transporting 1.2 million barrels of crude per day.

The conduit faced further risks when tensions in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia escalated into a full-blown military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi earlier this month.

Last week, Georgia claimed that Russian warplanes bombed the pipeline, but Russia denied deliberately targeting it.