Bypassing Turkey

Supertankers are barred from passing through the Bosporus because the Turkish government is worried that the city of Istanbul is vulnerable to the environmental impact of any accident. Also, new traffic regulations now only permit one tanker to cross the straits at a time, congesting traffic at the entrance of the Bosporus so that shipments are delayed as much as three weeks.

However, according to the WSJ, a proposed pipeline between port cities in Greece and Bulgaria to bypass the straits is on its way to becoming reality.

Officials in Greece, Russia and Bulgaria are making progress on a deal that would create an oil pipeline from Bulgaria to Greece’s coast, according to the people familiar with the matter. Supporters say the 174-mile project linking the port of Burgas—to which oil would be shipped across the Black Sea from the Russian port of Novorossiysk—with the Aegean Sea port of Alexandroupolis would bring major environmental benefits and relieve shipping delays at the crowded Bosporus.

The Bosporus—the connecting point between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, and from there to the Mediterranean Sea and the world—is becoming one of the major choke points in the global oil-supply chain. And two big producers, Russia and Kazakhstan, are increasingly competing to get their oil out of the Black Sea.

The Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline would carry 38.5 short tons of oil a year, or roughly 700,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with about 110 short tons that goes through the strait. However, shipping oil through the Bulgarian-Greek pipeline must be cheaper than sending it by tanker if it is to be attractive to oil companies.

Russia is the major backer of the pipeline, as 1/4 of all its oil exports go through the Bosporus and are held up by the delays.