Turkey Boosts Its Role as Strategic Energy Hub
The opening of a new pipeline to the Caucasus marks the country’s soaring importance as a route around potential problems in Iran and RussiaThe name of the game for energy-consuming countries these days is risk reduction. To prevent interruptions in the delivery of oil and natural gas, countries and energy companies are looking to diversify their suppliers and delivery routes. And for the U.S. and Europe, that’s increasingly translating into finding alternatives to Russia and Iran.
AdvertisementEnter Turkey. The Mideastern country that straddles Europe and Asia is suddenly gaining strategic importance as a safety valve for the West’s energy supply. On July 13, a BP-led consortium opened the tap on a long-awaited $4 billion pipeline that runs from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Bypassing Russian and Iranian territory, the 1,100-mile (1,760 km) pipeline snakes from Baku, Azerbaijan to Tbilisi, Georgia, and across Turkey to the coastal city of Ceyhan.
“This is one of those turning points in history,” says Mike Bilbo, director of communications and external affairs for BP (BP) in Turkey. “It changed the picture for Turkey overnight.” By his reckoning, existing shipping arrangements through the Bosporus Straits plus the new pipeline mean that 5% of the world’s oil now traverses Turkey.
After centuries of being marginal, Byzantium could reclaim its position as a bottleneck of vital international trade.
Get the RSS
Comments to this entry
Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace
July 20, 2006
2:31 am
Dan tdaxp
July 20, 2006
3:13 am
Curzon
July 20, 2006
4:14 am
Matt
July 20, 2006
5:30 am
Only if the few remaining Byzantines rise up and throw out the Turks, lol.
Jim
July 21, 2006
4:36 am
What? I've worked on quite a few of the Turkish piplines and they almost all go through Kurdish territory. The entire Turkish leg of the BTC goes through areas that are all 30% to 40% Kurdish. In fact Ceyhan itself is about 40% Kurdish. So it would be correct ot say that it does not go through the Kurdish majority areas but it absolutely goes through areas with many many Kurds. The crude pipleines to the south go through areas where no one speaks a word of Turkish.
That being said sabatage is not really an issue. The Kurds are not really intersted in messing with the piplines as this would effect their relations with the EU which are developing independent of Turkey and where issues are ging to be forcedon Ankara through EU membership. It will only be a problem if Ankara balks on reforms.
The real unspoken problem is seismic. the BTC is LONG, almost completly underground and goes though some very very active fault zones. It will be a miracle if this hose doesn't bust a few times.
In terms of its importance, in the big picture the BTC, even with adding Aktau to Baku, will never carry eve 1% of crude production. We all also know that the initial Caspian estimates are looking higer than reality.