Flag day: for Shell, Calik and Eni
Shell eyes Turkish pipe deal
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell has signed a deal with Turkey's Calik Energy and Italy's Eni on its possible participation in a key Turkish oil pipeline project, it said today.
The pipeline will carry oil between the Black Sea town of Samsun and the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, bypassing the Bosphorus.
"This bypass project will reduce the heavy tanker traffic in the straits and will have the role of a sustainable export corridor for the delivery of crude from Russia and the Caspian region which is expected to keep increasing," the statement said.
Turkey chose Calik to build the 550 kilometre pipeline in April and gave the company and its partner Eni six months to complete its engineering and design studies.
The pipeline will pump 75 million tonnes of oil per year. Delays at the Turkish straits have added to shipping costs for exports of Urals blend crude from Black Sea ports. When weather is bad, ships can be delayed at the passage for weeks.
Turkey envisages Ceyhan as a regional energy hub and Calik announced in August that it had applied with Indian Oil Corporation for a licence to build a $4.9 billion refinery there.
Ceyhan is the terminal of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which has the capacity to fill 1 million barrels per day, and is also the terminal for a pipeline from Iraq's Kirkuk oilfields.