Turkish oil-squeezer

Turkish oil-squeezer

Turkey plans to make the most of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. After the BP drilling rig explosion and subsequent oil spill, Turkish authorities brought up the problem of replacing tanker oil transportation with the trans-Anatolian Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline.

Istanbul is concerned about the possibility of the same ecological catastrophe happening οn the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits as they are one of the world’s most overloaded marine trade highways. About 136 vessels pass through the Straits every day, 27 of them being tankers, a Turkish Department of Energy’s report says. The head of the Ecology Department of Turkey, Veysel Eroglu, declared that 115 tons of oil have been spilt into the Straits in the past 15 years and that a new navigation code of rules should be created to prevent a disaster.

Nevertheless, Turkey can not alter Strait's navigation on its own without violating the Montreux Convention conditions, signed in 1936. A meeting of 20 world petroleum corporations’ representatives in Istanbul was the first step towards the problem’s settlement, but the efficient solution (i.e. replacement of maritime oil transportation with pipelines) is far too complex to be carried out any time soon.

Turkey lobbied successfully for the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project, convincing Russia to sign up, in spite of its initial disapproval of the idea. At the same time, Russia plans to start building its own oil-pipeline from Burgas (Bulgaria) to Alexandroupoli (Greece) on the Aegean coast. As the result, two pipelines could possibly take the major part of the oil-stream. However, petroleum corporations aren’t enthusiastic about the issue: according to the estimation of the Transneft president’s estimation, this means of transportation is much more expensive.

Turkish media have announced Ankara’s intention to create a Strait protection fund of 20 billion dollars with the help of foreign petroleum corporations, but this plan does not seem realistic, especially combined with the Samsun-Ceyhan project.

Eugeny Krishtalev. Exclusively for VK

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