Turkey expects to secure oil for new pipeline

Turkey sees Russian, Kazakh and Turkmen oil filling most of a planned $4 billion pipeline from its Black Sea coast to the Mediterranean port at Ceyhan, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. Turkey also expects to sign an agreement with the Azerbaijani government on procuring extra natural gas, Yildiz said. A disagreement about pricing and diplomatic wrangling over Armenia has held up the deal. Calik Group of Turkey and Eni, Italy’s biggest energy company, are joint partners in the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline that aims to deliver Caspian fuel from the northern city of Samsun to Ceyhan, terminus for two other oil pipelines, while bypassing Istanbul’s congested Bosporus channel. Russian companies may take a stake in the project, pipeline operator Transneft said last week. State-run Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer, agreed in October to supply the pipeline with its own crude. "After the Russian initiatives to secure oil for the pipeline, we expect fuel to be procured from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan,” Yildiz said. "There are many reasons to back this pipeline politically,” he said. “It has strategic importance and will contribute to Turkey becoming a petroleum and natural gas corridor." The 550-km pipeline is expected to have a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day.