Bosporus Bypasses Stalled as CPC Goes Ahead

摘要

Plans to build two new crude oil pipelines bypassing Turkey's congested Bosporus Strait - the Turkey-led Samsun-Ceyhan line and the Russia-backed Bourgas- Alexandroupolis line - have ground to a halt after Russia dropped its insistence that expansion of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) line should be conditional on construction of the new pipes. The Samsun-Ceyhan line figured on the agenda during a visit to Turkey by the Russian deputy prime minister in charge of energy, Igor Sechin, last week. Speaking after talks with Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz, Sechin said Russia's state-controlled Rosneft and national pipeline operator Transneft could each take 25% of the $4 billion project, whose other partners are Italy's Eni and Turkish industrial conglomerate Calik Holding.