Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at July 18th, 2008

The number of the companies and consortiums seeking to take part in Turkey’s first nuclear power plant project has increased to eight, with the Chinese Nuclear Power Components Co. and Dutch Unit Investment N.V. purchasing bid specifications.

Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Company (TETAŞ) had initiated a tender for the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant in the Akkuyu district of Mersin province in March. TETAŞ General Manager Hacı Duran Gökkaya said on Thursday he was expecting interest in the project to grow in the coming months. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 18th, 2008

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline has transferred 418 million barrels of crude oil since it started operations in 2006, BTC Oil Pipeline Company Turkey General Manager Can Suphi has said.

Suphi noted that the daily capacity of the BTC pipeline is 1 million barrels, adding that the line is operating near full capacity, with daily transfer of 900-950,000 barrels. He said 530 oil tankers have been filled from the line thus far.

Suphi was speaking at the 12th Social Investment Program Workshop held in the Orfoz facilities at Eymir Lake yesterday, where participants discussed projects to further the development of settlements along the BTC pipeline. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 17th, 2008

Eight companies and consortiums have so far received specifications for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant tender, a senior Turkish official said on Thursday

“China Nuclear Power Components from China and Unit Investment N.V. from the Netherlands are the last two companies that have received specifications to construct and operate a nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean province of Mersin and sell electrical energy to the Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting (TETAS),” said Haci Duran Gokkaya, the director-general of TETAS. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 17th, 2008

Verbund, Austria’s biggest utility, and Turkish partner Sabanı Holding are planning to expand in Turkey by building power plants and buying distribution grids. In order to accopmlish its plans the venture was granted a 1-billion-euro ($1.6 billion) loan by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., Akbank and WestLB. “Our goal is to buy at least one more large distribution large company or two mid-sized ones,” Sabancı Chief Executive Officer Ahmet Dördüncü said in an interview Tuesday. “We currently have 3 million customers, and we want to raise that to at least 6 million people.” Enerjisa, co-owned by Sabancı and Verbund, bid $1.23 billion to win a state tender July 1 for the Turkish capital Ankara’s electricity distribution grid, which has 2.9 million customers. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Foreign Trade Minister Kürşad Tüzmen has said Iraq would become a neighbor with an annual oil revenue of over $250 billion once stability is achieved in the country and that the total trade volume between Turkey and Iraq would reach $30 billion as Iraq becomes normalized.

Trade volume between the two countries in the first six months of this year exceeded $2.2 billion. Turkey is seeking to make this figure $5 billion by the end of the year. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Güler has stated that an American oil company has put in a request with his ministry to perform oil exploration in the Black Sea.

Speaking to the press on Saturday during his visit to İzmir for the opening of the Yuntdağı Wind Energy Power Plant (RES), Güler said Turkey’s oil exploration will begin in the Black Sea in 2009, adding that the aim is to find a good source very quickly as the cost of oil drilling is very high both on land and offshore. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

The meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the United States special envoy for Eurasian energy on Caspian natural gas to be sent to Europe via Turkey brought the relations between two countries to a more optimistic point on Friday.

“We had a very positive meeting on energy matters with Mr. Erdogan. Our discussions focused on Caspian natural gas to be sent to Europe via Turkey. The possibility of the Nabucco project going over Turkey came up during our meeting… It was also a constructive meeting and I left… more optimistic than I was at the beginning,” United States Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Boyden Gray said. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 10th, 2008

Turkish Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu said on Wednesday that since last year the Turkish private sector had submitted applications as part of the law on water use rights agreements to construct 1,461 hydroelectric power plants to produce 65 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy, which would take 50 years if the state was the sole investor. Upon completion these investments will generate an annual income of $58 billion for Turkey, the minister noted.

Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony in Ankara for 61 hydroelectric power plants to be built by the State Waterworks Authority (DSİ) and private sector investors, Eroğlu expressed excitement at seeing such a big step toward saving Turkey’s energy future. “We will transfer the ownership of energy investments worth $25 billion from the central management budget to the private sector,” he said. “We needed at least 50-60 years to realize the production of 20,000 megawatts of energy. I’m guessing that those private companies who have applied for the construction of hydroelectric power plants can complete 80 percent of the projects in 4-5 years.” (more…)