No ’one minute’ to Çalık for Israel project
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Begüm Gürsoy - Referans
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 03, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - A senior Turkish energy official will meet with Israeli and Indian counterparts in April to discuss a joint natural gas and oil pipeline project, a move that comes only two months after the "Davos incident" between the Turkish and Israeli leaders.
Selahattin Çimen, the Energy Ministry undersecretary, will participate in a trilateral meeting to seek ways to push the multibillion-dollar project that would carry Russian oil and gas to India via Israel.
Eyebrows are raised on the fact that the main actor in the project, the Çalık Group, has Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law as a top executive director. The whole affair has caused some to ask whether an exception was made for the group.
According to sources, the Çalık Group, also the contractor of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline Ğ considered as the first phase of the Medstream Ğ is still seeking to set up the budget and is far from completing feasibility studies. The estimated cost for Medstream is around 5 billion euros. But experts say it will be hard for the parties to raise enough financing for this massive project due to the ongoing global economic crisis.
Turkey and Israel have long been considering the building of a multipurpose pipeline to carry oil and natural gas from Caspian countries and Russia, and water and electricity from Turkey, to Israel. The original purpose was to bring Russian or Caspian resources, first to Israel, and then transfer them to India, China and even Taiwan from Israel's Askhelon port using the country's existing pipelines. Turkish, Israeli and Indian energy ministries held several meetings last year but talks were suspended due to Israeli aggression in Gaza, which strained ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
A chance for Blue Stream II?
The realization of the MedStream project does require the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been suspended due to a disagreement between Ankara and Moscow over the destination of a pipeline that would by-pass the Turkish straits. Ankara attaches great importance to the Samsun-Ceyhan line as part of its plans to become a regional energy hub.
However, for many experts, it is not going to be easy to convince Russia to allow its oil to flow through the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline without getting something in return; that is the realization of the Blue Stream II project, which would be an alternative to European Union-backed Nabucco project. Nabucco is designed to reduce Europe’s dependency to Russian natural gas but its realization is in risk of failing due to a lack of natural gas to fill the pipeline.
Eyebrows are raised on the fact that the main actor in the project, the Çalık Group, has Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law as a top executive director. The whole affair has caused some to ask whether an exception was made for the group.
According to sources, the Çalık Group, also the contractor of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline Ğ considered as the first phase of the Medstream Ğ is still seeking to set up the budget and is far from completing feasibility studies. The estimated cost for Medstream is around 5 billion euros. But experts say it will be hard for the parties to raise enough financing for this massive project due to the ongoing global economic crisis.
Turkey and Israel have long been considering the building of a multipurpose pipeline to carry oil and natural gas from Caspian countries and Russia, and water and electricity from Turkey, to Israel. The original purpose was to bring Russian or Caspian resources, first to Israel, and then transfer them to India, China and even Taiwan from Israel's Askhelon port using the country's existing pipelines. Turkish, Israeli and Indian energy ministries held several meetings last year but talks were suspended due to Israeli aggression in Gaza, which strained ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
A chance for Blue Stream II?
The realization of the MedStream project does require the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been suspended due to a disagreement between Ankara and Moscow over the destination of a pipeline that would by-pass the Turkish straits. Ankara attaches great importance to the Samsun-Ceyhan line as part of its plans to become a regional energy hub.
However, for many experts, it is not going to be easy to convince Russia to allow its oil to flow through the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline without getting something in return; that is the realization of the Blue Stream II project, which would be an alternative to European Union-backed Nabucco project. Nabucco is designed to reduce Europe’s dependency to Russian natural gas but its realization is in risk of failing due to a lack of natural gas to fill the pipeline.