Pipeline to pump $1 bln into Turkish coffers
Posted by meb at March 27th, 2007
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project, which will transport Caspian Sea oil to world markets, has already begun to bear fruit, earning Turkey over $400 million since its opening in July of last year.
Salih Paşaoğlu, general manager of Botaş International Limited (BIL), the Turkish Pipeline Company, said the target for 2007 is $1 billion from the pipeline and that the 2008 goal is 60 percent more. The target is to carry 1.6 million barrels of oil per day through the pipeline.
BIL gets 35 cents per barrel transported while the Treasury takes in 20 cents per barrel. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), moreover, gets a 6.5 percent share. With estimates of 584 million barrels of oil to be transported through the pipeline, the revenues of BIL and the Treasury will be $204.4 million and $116.8 million, respectively. TPAO’s profits will exceed $700 million.
Paşaoğlu said it was upsetting that workers’ salaries and allegations of hiring workers based on political inclination was more discussed than BIL’s achievements. He said the employee privileges of BIL workers are exaggerated. Paşaoğlu emphasized that the 550 staff members working for BIL are not covered by public servant regulations and pointed out that the main contractor was the multinational BTC.CO.
“We are subcontractors. They carry the work out in Azerbaijan and Georgia,” he said. “We are a company established abroad — that’s why purchases and hiring do not have to meet Turkish legislation.”
Paşaoğlu said the BTC pipeline would reach full capacity in a month. He said when full capacity was reached, 1 million barrels of oil would be transported each day and that BIL’s annual revenue would be $120 million. Paşaoğlu emphasized they were keeping up with technological advances to increase daily capacity up to 1.6 million barrels and said additional pumping stations would be constructed.
Paşaoğlu also provided information about the measures taken for pipeline security. The 1760-kilometer-long BTC oil pipeline is being monitored constantly through high-tech tracking units in special control rooms in Baku and Ceyhan. He said the gendarmerie had established 10 additional patrol stations and that 34 teams were taking part in the patrols.
BIL will also purchase helicopters and conduct air surveillance along the 1,000-kilometer-long pipeline. There have been 13 attempts at theft on the pipeline since it was officially inaugurated in July of last year. Other security measures, such as specially equipped mounted patrols, which are being used in the US, are under discussion.
Paşaoğlu said the BTC pipeline will contribute to Turkey becoming an energy hub between East and West. “With the completion of the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, Ceyhan will become an energy center,” he said.
“With the refineries that are going to be built, crude oil can be shipped or processed here. There may be a new oil mixture called ‘Brent Ceyhan’ in the near future,” Paşaoğlu said. He emphasized they were waiting for Iraq to maintain stability for activating the Iraq-Ceyhan oil pipeline and added that they may establish an oil exchange after that. Meanwhile, Paşaoğlu said they may bid, as BIL, for the operating rights of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
source: Today’s Zaman
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