Turkey is holding talks with Eni Spa of Italy and Turkey’s Calik Holding to begin construction of three pipelines carrying oil, natural gas and water to Israel from Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Eni and Calik are expected to start building the undersea route in the fourth quarter of 2007, a spokesman for Turkey’s energy minister said on Friday, according to Bloomberg. A study accessing the price of the project will be completed in June, said the spokesman, who declined to be identified.
Turkey, which imports nearly all of the crude oil it consumes, is seeking to become a hub for petroleum and natural gas shipments via pipelines from the Middle East, the Caspian Sea and Russia to consumers in Europe, the U.S and Mediterranean region.
The Turkish government is in talks with Russia to transport Russian natural gas via the pipeline, the ministry said. Eni and Calik are currently building a $1.5 billion pipeline to carry the gas from Turkey’s Balck Sea port of Samsun to Ceyhan.
The planned route to Israel would also carry crude oil from Ceyhan, the end point for a $3 billion pipeline built by BP PLc to ship Caspian Sea oil from Azerbaijan, the ministry said.