Category: Business

Startup Turkey
Elmira Bayrasli, Contributor

Weekly stories about entrepreneurs, innovations and innovative ideas

Startup Turkey
Thunder and lightening bookmarked eTohum’s Startup Turkey’s annual gathering this past weekend. It fit. The congregation of Turkish and regional entrepreneurs (from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Uzbekistan) stormed Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast for two and a half days of pitches and panels – the usual rundown for these events. What did I take away? Five points. I’ve outlined them below and will detail over the week ahead.
- Get out of Silicon (insert here): After talking to 23-year old Ankara-based Ali Cevik, I realized the importance of finding new markets and getting outside mainstream tech centers.
- I met the Arab Jeff Bezos: He’s Ala Suleiman who gave up a career in computer engineering to put books on tape for the Arab world.
- Entrepreneurial financing in between angel and venture isn’t mezzanine: It’s angel heavy. The iLab Ventures story
- The Arab world isn’t a country
- Broadbandgaria: South Eastern Europe’s Internet hope?
Startup Turkey Take Away #1

Turkey’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: More Than Just Start-UpsElmira BayrasliContributor

From Entrepreneur To Innovator: Pushing Turkish Startups To High-GrowthElmira BayrasliContributor

Entrepreneurs avoid government. Most, fearful of regulation and interference, keep an arm’s distance from his or her country’s bureaucrats. Ali Cevik is an exception. An engineering student at Bilkent University in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, the 23-year and a friend founded Imcom, a tech company that leverages 3D scanning for retailers. With Imcom’s technology, he told me during Startup Turkey, furniture shops can scan that red chair on display and show potential clients what it looks like in different colors. “We didn’t solve a problem,” he said. “We were just playing with the technology; the concept of the smart projector became a technical challenge for us.”

Turkey’s Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology found it compelling enough to fund.Microsoft’s BizSpark program has lent support as well. I found it refreshing: a Turkish startup that’s not an e-commerce clone. Away from Istanbul where clones and tech startups dominate, Ali found encouragement to pursue the idea many dismiss as hardware heavy and, thereby, capital dependent. Amid the Anatolian heartland where furniture manufacturers catapulted to global stardom, the odds on healthy scanner sales run high. These Anatolian Tigers need to maintain competitiveness.

In talking to Cevik I realized the importance of looking for an original market as much as an original idea. In crowded Istanbul it’s hard to see anything but trees. From Ankara, despite being a government town, Ali and those supporting him have a good view of the forest. And, boy, is it green.

Imcom goes beta in the Turkish capital today. It will test in the western city Canakkale in a few weeks.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2013/02/18/startup-turkey/
February 20, 2013
Leviathan gas sales to Turkey worth $3-4b a year

Leviathan is not big enough for exports by pipeline and LNG, and this could harm Woodside’s plans to build an LNG facility.

17 February 13 17:43, Amiram Barkat and Hillel Koren

A natural gas export contract with Turkey could generate $3-4 billion revenue a year for the Leviathan partners, Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG), and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L), according to an analysis of market prices and the quantities of gas under discussion by the parties. Turkey currently pays $11-16 per million BTU for natural gas it buys via pipeline, depending on the contracts with natural gas suppliers.

Turkish daily “Sunday’s Zaman” reports that Turkey’s main gas supplier, Russia, which supplies 55% of the country’s gas, charges $400 million per billion cubic meters, or $11 per million BTU. Azerbaijan, which supplies 10% of the country’s gas, charges $300 million per billion cubic meters, and Iran, which supplies 25% of the country’s gas, charges $505million per billion cubic meters. Turkish complaints about the high price of Iranian gas resulted in the opening of arbitration proceeding in March 2012. Nonetheless, Turkey increased its gas purchases from Iran by 10%, compared with 2011, to 8 BCM, at a cost of over $4 billion.

Talks between Turkish companies and the Leviathan partners mention gas deliveries equal to Turkey’s imports from Iran.

Energy analysts are currently skeptical about a deal, saying that there is nothing to price at this time, and that Egyptian gas affair demonstrates the geopolitical risks of any gas contract. “If the gas flow stops after two years, how will that affect the return on investment and yields? After all, no one can guarantee such large gas sales,” a market source says.

Noble Energy executives have said in the past that any deal with Turkey would require changes in the diplomatic landscape. In addition, any large gas deal with Turkey could have ramifications on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plans and on plans by Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (ASX: WPL) to become a partner in Leviathan for the purpose of building such a facility.

The size of gas discovery at Leviathan and other fields are not big enough for simultaneous exports by pipeline and LNG, even assuming that the Tzemach Committee does not reduce its gas export recommendations, following disappointing results from wells drilled after the report was published.

Market sources believe that that Leviathan partners will soon announce an update on the discovery. Source close to the matter are optimistic about an upward revision from the current estimate of 17 trillion cubic feet of gas. The Leviathan 4 verification well, begun in mid-November, will take four months to complete. The well is targeting strata at a depth of 5,300 meters, including 1,600 meters water depth. The well will later serve as the gas production rig as part of Leviathan’s development plan.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on February 17, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

via Leviathan gas sales to Turkey worth $3-4b a year – Globes.

February 19, 2013
No Israel-Turkey gas deal without Erdogan OK

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told the newspaper: We won’t operate a project with Israel without seeing that the conditions put by the prime minister are met.

17 February 13 13:18, Globes’ correspondent

Turkish daily “Hurriyet Daily News” quotes Energy Minister Taner Yıldız as saying that Turkey will not agree to an energy project with Israel without the approval of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on an Israeli offer to lay an undersea natural gas pipeline to Turkey for export to Europe. He told CNBC-e, “We can’t act like nothing ever happened. We won’t operate a project with Israel without seeing that the conditions put by the prime minister are met [first].”

“Hurriyet” says, “Israel has offered to lay an undersea natural gas pipeline to Turkey’s south coast in order to sell energy to Europe. The Leviathan field, Israel’s biggest, contains an estimated 425 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and the field will produce enough gas to supply all of Israel’s needs for the coming years. As such, the country is looking to export the excess gas.”

The paper quotes Taner as saying that Turkey’s main objective is to benefit from its geographical advantages and cooperate with its neighbors on energy, but Israel knows Turkey’s sore points, adding, “Unless the political conditions mature, beginning these kinds of projects is risky.”

On Thursday, “Globes” reported that, in the past few weeks, the partners in the Leviathan gas field have received queries from some of Turkey’s biggest companies and Western multinationals operating in the country interested in buying natural gas from the reservoir.

“Hurriyet” cites Israeli newspapers as suggesting that Turkey’s Zorlu Energy Group could become involved in the project. “The company said it has been an important energy player in Israel and has shares in several power plants in the country, adding that the idea of laying an undersea pipeline between the two countries had been broached several times in business meetings but official offer has been made. In Israel, Zorlu owns a 25% stake in Dorad Energy, which is developing a power plant in Ashkelon. It also has a 42% interest in cogeneration projects at the Ashdod and Ramat Negev plants.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on February 17, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

via “Hurriyet”: No Israel-Turkey gas deal without Erdogan OK – Globes.

February 19, 2013
Research Completed for Turkey’s First Nuclear Power Plant

From Balkans

The seismic research for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, which is slated to be built in Akkuyu in the southern province of Mersin, have been completed, according to the constructor firm, Russian Rosatom.

Rosatom Deputy Manager Kirill Komarov said the company had completed all the engineering works in the region, including seismic research. He said they planned to obtain an electricity generation permit this year, stressing that their works were proceeding on schedule.

Rosatom applied for an exploration license of stone quarry for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. “After we obtain all necessary permits, we will present a draft to Turkish officials that will evaluate it until mid-2015. Then start up works will be launched,” he said, adding that electricity generation would begin physically in 2019 but that they aimed to officially open a nuclear power plant by 2020.

Turkey and Russia signed the deal to build the first nucleur power plant at Akkuyu in 2010.

via Research Completed for Turkey’s First Nuclear Power Plant – Energy TribuneEnergy Tribune.

February 19, 2013
New Iranian firms in Turkey stir front company worries for Ankara

An unexpected number of Iranian-financed firms set up shop in Turkey in January, a development likely to cause discomfort in Ankara as Iran looks to develop a network of middlemen in Turkey and elsewhere to sidestep crushing international sanctions meant to halt its nuclear program Today`s Zaman reported.

There were 28 Iranian-funded foreign companies established in Turkey in January, which ranked just behind German investors, according to a report released by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) on Friday.

The development continues a trend of an unprecedented number of Iranian-funded firms opening their doors in Turkey since international sanctions against Iran began in earnest two years ago. A previous TOBB report published in September 2012 stated that 651 Iranian-funded foreign companies were established in Turkey in the first nine months of 2012 and a total of 2,140 companies funded by Iran in 2011, other TOBB data show. This was a 40 percent rise over 2010.

In turn, the trend has caused Ankara worry that potentially illegal activities by those Iranian companies will risk an unwanted confrontation between Ankara and its Western allies over US and EU-imposed sanctions, as well as several UN Security Council resolutions. Many of those firms, which are predominately listed as power generation, electronics and communications companies, are suspected by the US and EU of helping the country procure supplies under embargo.

It isn’t the only way that Iran has made Turkey its ally against sanctions, though the US this month moved to block another Turkish lifeline to Iran, the “gold for gas” trade which saw Turkey export gold to Iran in exchange for Iranian natural gas and petrol. The trade saw Turkey export around $6.5 billion in gold to Iran in 2012, a more than tenfold increase over the year before.

But while Turkey has traditionally been defiant about its right to continue that trade, arguing that Iran supplies 30 percent of its daily natural gas supply and it is too large a quantity to fully replace with imports from elsewhere, Ankara is likely to bow to pressure on a new US measure to block sales of precious metals to Iran. The new measure targets Halkbank, which has been used as an intermediary to convert the lira Tehran receives in gas sales into gold accounts. According to Reuters, Iranian couriers are then believed to withdraw gold from those accounts and ship the gold to Iran.

But while highly visible intermediaries like Halkbank can be targeted, the smaller front firms looking to sneak goods and merchandise under the embargo may be much harder to stop. Previous reports by Today’s Zaman have shown that those companies use a number of poorly regulated intermediaries like Iraq and Pakistan to re-route merchandise from Turkey, or use the porous Esendere border crossing in Yüksekova in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari.

The TOBB statistics provided by new Iranian firms entering Turkey also suggest that illegal actions may be afoot. A TOBB report in January last year saw 63 Iranian companies register in the month, versus just 36 German companies. Given that Germany’s trade with Turkey is over twice as high for that year, it suggests that many of those companies may indeed be fronts.

Last January’s numbers also suggest that the overall number of Iranian firms registering in Turkey declined over the year, a trend Former Justice and Development Party (AKP) Mardin deputy Cüneyt Yüksel told Today’s Zaman was likely the result of declining confidence and capital among non-front Iranian firms, expecially in the tourism sector.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Antalya Deputy Mehmet Gunal meanwhile told Today’s Zaman that Turkey and Iran have different views on the Syrian issue, a difference which could also be a contributor to the decline in the number of Iranian businesses.

Even if Turkey does crack down on suspicious Iranian firms, there are still likely ways Tehran will be able to ship parts critical for its nuclear program through its borders. This weekend a report by nuclear watchdog, the Institute for Science and International Security, reported that Tehran has used China as a conduit for specialized magnets needed to develop nuclear weapons.

In July of last year Washington took its most notable step to stop front companies from supplying Iran, releasing a list of ships and banks that it said were helping Tehran acquire a nuclear weapon. The US and the EU have worked to freeze financial transactions and to fine companies knowingly doing business with fronts for Iran.

via New Iranian firms in Turkey stir front company worries for Ankara – Trend.Az.

February 19, 2013
Turkey Launches Ship to Support Offshore Energy Exploration

An oil-drilling platform is escorted by tugboats at Istanbul en route to a joint Turkish-Brazilian exploration site in 2009. (photo by REUTERS/Murad Sezer)

By: Tulin Daloglu for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse. Posted on February 18.

With the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean bringing Turkey’s old and new rivalries together, the Ankara government is taking slow but steady steps toward a comeuppance for them. Only time will tell whether the effort will yield productive results.

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Summary :

Turkey commits resources, including dedicated naval vessels, to preserve and protect its rights in its exclusive economic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean, writes Tulin Daloglu.

Author: Tulin Daloglu

Posted on : February 18 2013

Categories : Originals Turkey

On Feb. 17, Turkey launched the Tubitak Marmara, its first domestically produced oil-exploration vessel, some two weeks after the Barbaros Hayrettin, a newly purchased 3-D seismic exploration vessel, docked at Istanbul, on Feb. 1.

Speaking before parliament on Jan. 30, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz asserted that Turkey’s underwater oil and natural gas explorations had received new momentum. He described the new vessels as part of a well-coordinated effort clearly signaling that the path ahead will not be an easy one for anyone attempting to isolate Turkey and prevent it from exploiting its rightful share of hydrocarbons in the region. If these ships say something, it is that Turkey is serious about preserving its water rights and exclusive economic zone. They also highlight that Turkey is no longer solely reliant on others to assist it with hydrocarbon exploration.

Recent hydrocarbon discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean basin have brought together Israel, Greece and Greek Cyprus in an unusual alignment at a time when Turkish and Israeli politicians have gone over the cliff in their failed efforts to revive their relationship in the wake of the Mavi Marmara affair. Turkish officials closely monitoring the situation remain skeptical about the trio’s ability to bring the oil and natural gas finds to market at a reasonable price — especially given the complicated engineering of building a pipeline in the Eastern Mediterranean basin if the they are determined to push Turkey aside.

For starters, Turkish energy analysts point to the issue of deepwater pressure. A Turkish-Israeli effort to exploit the hydrocarbons would involve building some 460 kilometers [285 miles] of pipeline under the Mediterranean, from Ceyhan to Haifa. That said, the distance from Israel to Greek Cyprus and then to Greece exceeds 2,000 kilometers [1,200 miles]. Water pressure is such a difficult challenge at that length that Turkish analysts consider building the pipeline an “impossible mission.”

Turkey, meanwhile, is playing its own hand in the hydrocarbon game. “We are about to finalize our work of the past seven months concerning seismic exploration at sea. We purchased a vessel that has proved its success in two- and three-dimensional seismic exploration of the sea basin,” Energy Minister Yildiz told the parliament. “It is first going to conduct seismic exploration of the Black Sea and then move to the Mediterranean. Because it uses 3-D technology, I believe we will accomplish a lot in a short period of time.”

At the ceremony for launching the Tubitak Marmara, Nihat Ergun, minister of science, industry, and technology, emphasized that not only will the craft be used for oil and natural gas exploration, but also for an array of other things, among them, studying maritime traffic, observing pipelines, preserving the environment, and studying fault lines.

The new ships are good news for the Turkish maritime sector despite being latecomers. For a country surrounded by water on three sides, and thus having some 8,500 kilometers [5,281 miles] of coastline, Turkey has been slow to expand on ways to best benefit from the sea. It is now making clear that it is taking hydrocarbon discoveries quite seriously in its allocation of funding, research, and manpower to ensure that Turkey scores its own advantages.

Yet the wiser option, at least for Turkey and Israel, would be to find a way past their stalemate over the Mavi Marmara apology kerfuffle and focus on the long-term interests of the region. Practically speaking, however, the likelihood that they will act with such wisdom is zero.

Tulin Daloglu is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse. She has written extensively for various Turkish and American publications, including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Middle East Times, Foreign Policy, The Daily Star (Lebanon) and the SAIS Turkey Analyst Report. She also had a regular column at The Washington Times for almost four years.

via Turkey Launches Ship to Support Offshore Energy Exploration – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

February 19, 2013