Tapco Begins Construction of Samsun Ceyhan Oil Pipeline
Posted on: Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 09:22 CDT
The Tapco Company, which was formed by Turkey's Calik Enerji and Italian utility Eni, has started constructing the oil pipeline that will connect the Turkish port of Samsun in the Black Sea with the southeastern Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
The $1.5 billion, 550km pipeline is expected to carry Russian and Kazakh oil between the Turkish ports. The pipeline will bypass Turkey's narrow Bosporus strait, which has seen increasingly heavy tanker traffic recently, and has become a major safety concern. The pipeline will also ease traffic in the Dardanelles straits.
The Samsun Ceyhan pipeline, which is scheduled to open in 2011, will initially have a yearly capacity of 50 million tons of crude oil, which will increase to 70 million tons at a later date, according to a European Commission press release.
According to The Associated Press, the US and many European countries have voiced their support for the scheme, which will enhance Turkey's position as a worldwide energy passage. The Turkish Ceyhan port is already the final destination of two oil pipelines; one which carries Caspian oil from Baku, and one which carries Iraqi oil from Kirkuk.
Europe's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, has also voiced his support for the Samsun Ceyhan oil pipeline. He said: "This Black Sea export route will increase secure oil supplies for the EU and the world markets, an essential condition for our new energy policy."
Mr Piebalgs added: "Additional quantities of oil expected from the region in the coming years and the increasing density of maritime traffic in the enclosed Black Sea make it essential to give a higher priority to the alternative of transporting oil by pipelines." The Burgass-Alexandropolis and Constanza-Trieste pipelines are also being built to this effect, the commissioner said.
Mr Piebalgs also hopes that the new pipeline will help to secure Europe's energy diversity and to reduce its dependence on Russia, in particular its state-owned utility Gazprom, The Associated Press reported.
Source: Datamonitor
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