Tag: Taner Yildiz

  • No Israel gas transit via Turkey: Ankara

    No Israel gas transit via Turkey: Ankara

    Ankara has rejected requests from its private firms to allow the transit of natural gas produced in Israel through Turkey to Europe, says Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, Press TV reports.

    Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz
    Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz

    Yildiz noted that private firms have proposed plans to carry Israeli natural gas to Europe via Turkish territory.

    “Had not nine of our nationals been murdered, there could be major developments in the energy distribution in the Mediterranean Sea. [Then] we would not have rejected the demand by private firms,” he said on Friday.

    Yildiz was referring to an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound flotilla on May 30, 2010 that killed nine Turkish nationals.

    The Israeli attack, which drew worldwide condemnation, severely damaged ties between Turkey and Israel.

    Turkey has repeatedly called on Israel to apologize for the attack and pay compensation to the families of the victims, warning that Ankara-Tel Aviv relations will not normalize if Israel fails to do so.

    Tel Aviv has refused to apologize to Turkey over the deadly raid.

    DB/JG/HJL

    via PressTV – No Israel gas transit via Turkey: Ankara.

  • Christofias Says Turkey’s Moves on Cyprus Oil Risk New Conflict

    Christofias Says Turkey’s Moves on Cyprus Oil Risk New Conflict

    By Bill Varner – Sep 22, 2011 7:16 PM GMT+0200

    Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Turkey’s moves to extract oil and gas from waters off the divided Mediterranean Sea island are illegal provocations that risk a renewal of hostilities.

    “Turkish naval maneuvers in the region of Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone, where exploration is being carried out, are provocative and a real danger for further complications in the region,” Christofias said in a speech today to the United Nations General Assembly.

    “I wish, from this esteemed podium, to condemn this illegal act which constitutes a provocation, not only for the Republic of Cyprus but also for the entire international community,” Christofias said. “Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership are trying to create tension and new illegal faits- accomplis.”

    Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 and is the only country to recognize the Turkish Cypriot north as an independent nation, disputes Cyprus’s right to explore for hydrocarbons in its Exclusive Economic Zone and has sent warships to the area.

    Reunification talks resumed in 2008 after Greek Cypriots, who run the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south, rejected a UN-sponsored settlement plan.

    A Turkish vessel will sail tomorrow to begin seismic exploration for oil and gas in waters of the Mediterranean north of Cyprus, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said today.

    Also today, in a statement released by his government’s press office, Christofias gave a “guarantee” that Turkish Cypriots will benefit from offshore discoveries before the island is unified. The continental-shelf agreement announced yesterday by Turkey and northern Cyprus is “unacceptable,” Christofias said in the statement.

    Christofias also told the General Assembly that the unification talks have been set back by what he described as Turkish Cypriot “retracting on the negotiation table, including from previously found convergences.” The change in the Turkish Cypriot position, he said, “feeds on recent negative and provocative policy of Turkey in the region.”

    To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

    via Christofias Says Turkey’s Moves on Cyprus Oil Risk New Conflict – Bloomberg.

  • Turkey would consider US proposal for nuclear power plant

    Turkey would consider US proposal for nuclear power plant

    US proposal to build a nuclear power plant would be considered: Turkish Energy minister

    AFP

    Turkey’s energy minister said Monday Ankara would consider a proposal from the United States to build a nuclear power plant in the country’s north.

    “If a proposal comes from the United States, we could evaluate it but so far, no concrete proposal has been made to us,” Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters.

    Turkey reached an agreement with Russia in May 2010 to build Turkey’s first nuclear plant in Akkuyu in Mersin province, in the south.

    In December, Turkey and Japan also signed a memorandum on civil nuclear cooperation, a step towards a possible $20-billion deal for Japanese companies to build a nuclear plant at Sinop, on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

    Yildiz said Turkey wanted to hear the same political will from Japan after the latter’s prime minister changed.

    “I can say we are negotiating with different countries and different companies in order to generate alternative solutions in case Japan is unable to carry on with us,” Yildiz said.

    The minister declined to name which countries or firms Turkey was negotiating with but said everything would be clarified by the end of October.

    He repeated the Turkish government’s insistence to press ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant amid concerns raised by Japan’s nuclear disaster.

    “There is a logic to our determination,” said Yildiz. “We want to minimise our dependence on energy imports.”

    via Turkey would consider US proposal for nuclear power plant – Region – World – Ahram Online.

  • Turkey Rattles Saber Over Cyprus Oil Drilling

    Turkey Rattles Saber Over Cyprus Oil Drilling

    By MARC CHAMPION

    WO AH063A TURKC D 20110919172404ISTANBUL—Turkey said it was ready to send warships to escort research vessels that would explore for oil and gas off the coast of Northern Cyprus, responding to what it said was a provocation by the island’s Greek Cypriot south.

    Monday’s saber-rattling came as Texas-based Noble Energy Inc. began exploratory drilling farther south between Cyprus and Israel late Sunday, despite Turkish warnings to halt the project, the semiofficial Cyprus News Agency reported. Noble was operating under license from the Republic of Cyprus, the island’s internationally recognized government in the Greek Cypriot south.

    The developments raised the stakes in a dispute over drilling rights around the divided island.

    Turkish leaders say the Republic of Cyprus shouldn’t drill for oil and gas on the continental shelf that it delineated with Israel in an agreement last year. Any drilling or maritime agreements, Ankara says, should wait until the island—divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus in response to a Greek-backed coup—is reunified, so both the Greek and Turkish populations can benefit.

    Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz on Monday described the Cypriot exploration project as “a political provocation aimed at consolidating the Greek Cypriot administration’s status,” and so short-circuiting reunification talks for the island, Turkey’s state Anadolu news agency reported.

    Mr. Yildiz also reiterated a Turkish warning that it would make its own agreement with the de facto government of Northern Cyprus to delineate the continental shelf north of the island, if Noble Energy were to proceed with its drilling plans. Ankara would then authorize the Turkish Petroleum Corp. to send research vessels to begin exploration in the Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot waters, he said.

    “The research will be carried out together with a [navy] escort,” Anadolu reported Mr. Yildiz as saying.

    The Republic of Cyprus is a European Union member state, but isn’t recognized by Turkey. By contrast, Turkey is the only country to recognize the administration of the government of the island’s ethnic-Turkish North. The two sides are divided by a United Nations-monitored green line.

    Ankara’s threat of military action came on the heels of similar threats Turkey made in recent weeks to send naval vessels to escort future aid convoys that attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Those combative policies risk confrontation with Cyprus and Israel, as well tensions with the EU and Washington, diplomats said, noting that Cyprus is an EU member and Noble Energy is a U.S. company.

    A spokeswoman for the European Union’s foreign-affairs service said Monday in Brussels that the EU urged “Turkey to refrain from any kind of threat or sources or friction or action” that could damage relations in the neighborhood or border settlement talks.

    Officials at the Energy Service of the Republic of Cyprus ministry for Commerce, Industry and Tourism didn’t return phone and email requests to comment. A spokesman for Noble Energy didn’t return calls seeking comment.

    Noble Energy is also involved in developing Israel’s Leviathan field, which contains an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet, or about 453 billion cubic meters, of natural gas. Noble’s partner in that project, Israel’s Delek Drilling LP, has applied to the Greek Cypriot government to activate an option to take a 30% share in the Cypriot exploration license, too, said a senior industry executive familiar with the project.

    “The main reason Turkey is reacting so strongly is that it wants to be the gateway for any new gas to come to EU markets,” the executive said. A major Greek Cypriot find would undermine that goal, he said, as Cyprus would then export gas to the EU via Greece.

    Selcuk Unal, spokesman for Turkey’s foreign ministry, dismissed that claim as “childish,” saying Turkey was already an energy hub. “The question here is why now? Why are the Cypriots hurrying to start drilling now? They could have done it years ago. The reason is that it coincides with a crucial moment in reunification negotiations, which is why we find that this is all a provocation,” he said.

    Turkey has sought to force the pace in Cyprus’s reunification talks lately, threatening to freeze relations with the EU if reunification hasn’t been agreed upon by the time Cyprus takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency in the second half of 2012. Mr. Yildiz repeated that warning on Monday.

    Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

    Corrections & Amplifications

    An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Noble Energy Inc. as Noble Engineering Inc.

    via Turkey Rattles Saber Over Cyprus Oil Drilling – WSJ.com.

  • Bulgaria Gives Up on Trying to Make Gas Pipe to Turkey Part of Nabucco

    Bulgaria Gives Up on Trying to Make Gas Pipe to Turkey Part of Nabucco

    The Bulgarian government is no longer trying to make the future gas interconnection between Bulgaria and Turkey a section of the EU-sponsored gas transit pipeline Nabucco, Economy Minister Traikov announced.

    photo verybig 129614

    The gas pipeline connecting the natural gas networks of Bulgaria and Turkey could be ready by 2014, and through which Bulgaria could be receiving up to 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov told the Members of Parliament on Friday.

    Back in 2010, Traikov was convinced that the future Bulgaria-Turkey gas interconnection would become “the first operational section” of the Nabucco pipeline. The idea was endorsed in the fall of 2010 by the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and Turkey Boyko Borisov and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the rationale being that the two countries could thus be entitled to use EU funds for the missing gas network link.

    On Friday, however, Traikov admitted that the Bulgarian Economy Ministry is no longer pursuing this project – which means that the Bulgaria-Turkey gas interconnection will not coincide with Nabucco’s pipe – because this would make the launching of the Bulgaria-Turkey pipe “expensive and slow.”

    Bulgaria’s decision to give up on merging of Nabucco and the Bulgaria-Turkey pipeline comes after in May 2011, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH pushed back the start of construction of its EUR 7.9 B pipeline to carry Caspian natural gas to Europe to 2013; thus, Nabucco is now expected to start operations in 2017 instead of 2015, as previously expected.

    Traikov’s announcement about the gas interconnection with Turkey comes a day after his meeting with his counterpart from Azerbaijan Natiq Aliyev, who confirmed that Azerbaijan can start shipping to Bulgaria about 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year as soon as the gas links between Bulgaria and Turkey, and Bulgaria and Greece are completed.

    On Thursday, Bulgaria’s state-owned gas company Bulgargaz replaced the CEO of its subsidiary Bulgartransgaz, one of the major arguments for the change being the need to speed up the construction of the Bulgaria-Turkey gas pipe.

    The working group of the Bulgarian government has concluded that the best option for the Bulgaria-Turkey gas interconnection would be if it is built by Bulgartransgaz and Turkey’s state company Botas.

    via Bulgaria: Bulgaria Gives Up on Trying to Make Gas Pipe to Turkey Part of Nabucco – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

  • Bulgaria: Bulgaria Plans to Start Exporting Electricity to Turkey in July

    Bulgaria: Bulgaria Plans to Start Exporting Electricity to Turkey in July

    Bulgaria and Turkey have agreed to speed up the construction of a gas grid interconnection between the two countries, Bulgarian Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said Thursday after a meeting with Turkish counterpart Taner Yildiz.

    bulgaria taner yildiz

    The two ministers met in Kayseri, Turkey, where they took part in the signing of the Project Support Agreements (PSAs) between NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International GmbH and the responsible ministries of the five transit countries.

    “The PSAs give better guarantees for the sustainability of key factors for Nabucco like the legal framework, the procedures, etc., they make it more bankable and pave the way for securing the funding. The implementation schedule for the gas pipeline makes us reiterate the importance of a speedy construction of a gas grid interconnection that will allow us to achieve true diversification and access other sources of gas supplies “, Minister Traikov stated.

    The Bulgarian expert working group on the project recommends building the gas link in the most economically profitable way, without commitments to the specifications of the Nabucco gas pipeline. As a result, the gas interconnection will not be a rival to Nabucco because of its totally different scale and terms for implementation.

    In July, Bulgaria’s state power utility NEK starts executing the contracts for electricity exports to Turkey, Traikov pointed out, adding that this happens for the first time after a 9-year break. According to Bulgaria’s Energy Minister, the system is currently operating in test mode.

    Another topic on the agenda of the meeting were the nuclear programs of both countries, including the projects for new nuclear power plants.

    Minister Traikov briefed his Turkish counterpart on the ongoing debates in the EU on the development of the sector and Bulgaria’s call for the introduction of stringent and objective common standards about nuclear safety to be applied by EU member states and neighbor countries.

    He also made it clear that safety standards for new nuclear capacities were to be adopted at the forthcoming Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety on 20-24 June in Vienna, Austria.

    via Bulgaria: Bulgaria Plans to Start Exporting Electricity to Turkey in July – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.