Pipe plans? for Shell
'Shell set to join Samsun-Ceyhan project'
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell is close to signing a deal with Turkish outfit Calik Energy and Italy's Eni to join the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, sources close to the deal claiemd today.
The deal would ease financing concerns but more importantly assure supplies for the pipeline, probably from Kazakhstan's Kashagan field. Construction was started last year without securing the necessary throughput.
"Talks over feasibility are at the final phase. I think an agreement will be signed by the end of June," one source told Reuters.
Indian Oil announced it had bought a 12.5% stake in the pipeline in December 2006, but sources now say the state-run Indian oil company will not be taking part in the project.
The 550-kilometre pipeline is expected to cost $1.5 billion and will carry an initial 1 million barrels per day to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, with plans to raise the capacity to 1.5 million bpd.
The project, which will be carried out by the Trans Anatolian Pipeline Company (Tapco), is designed to reduce increasing traffic through the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
Calik and Eni each hold 50% in Tapco and under the new deal Shell will get "a considerable stake" from them, the source said.
Shell and Eni will also be able to use oil from Kazakhstan's Kashagan field to fill up a portion of the Samsun-Ceyhan, a second source told the enws agency.
"The Kashagan project, in which Shell and Eni have a stake, will be able to provide enough oil for the pipeline," another source said.
Other sources of oil are expected to come from other fields in central Asia and the Caspian region.