Royal Dutch Shell announced yesterday it had signed an agreement with energy peers Eni and Calik Enerji on its possible participation in a major oil pipeline project in Turkey. A spokeswoman for the Anglo-Dutch group confirmed a statement from Italian energy group Eni that said: “Shell has signed an agreement with Eni and Calik Enerji (of Turkey) to investigate the possibility of participating in the development of a pipeline between Samsun and Ceyhan.” Samsun and Ceyhan are ports - the former on the Black Sea and the latter on the Mediterranean. “The aim of the project is to provide a convenient and attractive alternative to oil tanker traffic in the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits,” the Shell spokeswoman said. Analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm in London said that the pipeline would cost about $1.5 billion (1.18 billion euros) to build and would be able to transport about 75 million tons of oil per year.
(AFP)