ADANA - "Turkey is strengthening its position as a transit country in oil, natural gas and electricity," said Turkish Energy & National Resources Minister Hilmi Guler, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Trans-Anatolia Crude Oil Pipeline (from Samsun to Ceyhan) in southern city of Adana, on Tuesday.
"Nearly 10 months ago, we have inaugurated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which links Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. Thanks to it, 150 million barrels of oil were shipped to the world markets. Now, we are going to connect two seas --Black Sea and the Mediterranean," noted Guler.
He added that this project would also be environment-friendly because the Mediterranean is an important place where caretta-carettas ovulate. He noted that every measures will be taken to protect the environment.
-ITALIAN MINISTER-
Italian Minister of Economic Development Pierluigi Bersani, who also attended the ceremony, said that through the pipeline, oil will be flowed from Asia to Ceyhan.
Bersani noted that trade volume between Turkey and Italy is up more than 16 percent in 2006 over 2005. He added that more than 500 Italian companies have been invested in Turkey.
Noting that Italian companies are highly interested in investments on energy area, Bersani said that Turkish and Italian companies signed many agreements.
Stressing that this project beefed up Turkey`s strategic position, Bersani said that it will also strengthen Turkey`s hand in regard its accession to the EU.
-THE PROJECT-
Trans-Anatolia Crude Oil Pipeline starts from Samsun on the Black Sea coast and ends at Ceyhan oil terminal on the Mediterranean. Its length is 555 kilometers.
Turkish Calik Energy and Italian ENI companies have each 50 percent share in the pipeline which will cost approximately 1.5 billion USD.