Russian Vice-Premier Igor Sechin said today in Ankara that Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev plans to sign intergovernmental agreements
on his visit to Turkey, RIA Novosti reports.
Some documents are still being studied by experts. The main issues are
cooperation in the spheres of gas, energy, nuclear power, oil
transport and a visa-free regime, Sechin said at a joint
press-conference with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz in Ankara.
The Russian president arrives to Ankara on Tuesday night. The two
sides will sign various agreements, including on the formation of a
Council of High-level Cooperation under the chairmanship of Medvedev
and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sechin described the Samsun-Jaykhan oil pipeline as a priority project
for Russia.
In October last year an agreement was signed in Milan on cooperation
and exploitation of the Samsun-Jaykhan pipeline by the Russian
companies Rosneft, Transneft and Sovkomflot, together with a Turkish
company Calik and the Italian company Eni. Lukoil also declared
interest in the project.
According to Sechin, the construction of the pipeline will cost
approximately $3 billion.
The Turkish Energy Minister added that Russia and Turkey have
encountered no problems in signing the intergovernmental memorandum on cooperation in constructing and exploiting the first Turkish nuclear
power plant.
The Turkish authorities cancelled the tender for constructing the
first nuclear power plant in November last year, in which a
Russian-Turkish consortium including Atomstroyexport, Inter RAE UPG
and Park Teknik was taking part. Atomstroyexport poroposed
constructing four energy units in Turkey as part of the AES-2006
project, with a power of 4.8 thousand Megawatts.
The consortium took financing of the construction upon itself. The
issue was discussed as part of the visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
Russia in January this year.
The agreement involved formation of a bilateral working group to solve
issues concerning the implementation of the project. In February,
according to the results of negotiations with the Turkish Energy
Minister in Istanbul, Sechin reported that experts were concluding
technical work on the the construction of the nuclear power plant, and
were ready for the final conclusion of the document.
