Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at March 20th, 2009

The General Directorate of Highways has announced that it will hold a tender for the construction of a new highway stretching from the town of Gebze in the northwestern province of Kocaeli to the Aegean province of İzmir, including a bridge over the Gulf of İzmit, on April 9.

The project will be carried out through the build-operate-transfer method. Many Turkish and foreign firms have expressed interest in the tender, which has been postponed a number of times already. The directorate will ask companies submitting bids to specify how long they want to operate the bridge and highway. The firm that fulfils the conditions of the bid specifications and commits to the shortest period of operation will win the tender. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 14th, 2009

Turkey’s first high-speed train, running between Ankara and Eskişehir, has started to carry passengers. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took an inaugural ride at 9:40 a.m. on Friday with a host of other officials and journalists following a ceremony at the Ankara train station.

Erdoğan said during the ceremony that a high-speed line running between Eskişehir and İstanbul was also in the works, and that when they completed an Ankara-İstanbul line, they will have realized a 10-year dream.

By the end of 2010, an Ankara-Konya line should be complete, Erdoğan said, recalling the importance of this transportation project to his administration. “In this way, we’re spreading railroads across the country,” the prime minister said. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 12th, 2009

The Nabucco pipeline project is crucial as being the backbone of the market, said the project’s CEO Reinhard Mitschek on Thursday.

Europe and Turkey are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign sources of energy as consumption increases, Mitschek said at the 8th Turkey International Oil and Gas Conference in Ankara, adding that the 8 billion euro estimated worth of the project would also contribute to the growth of the Turkish economy, the Anatolian Agency reported. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 4th, 2009

The Black Sea has a massive amount of oil and natural gas resources, comparable to those of the Caspian Sea — enough to meet Turkey’s needs for the coming 40 years, the general manager of Turkey’s state-owned oil exploration and drilling company has said.

Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) General Manager Mehmet Uysal noted that estimates based on the findings of sonar-equipped oil exploration ships show that there are at least 10 billion barrels of oil reserves beneath the Black Sea. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 1st, 2009

Turkey urged its partners in the Nabucco gas pipeline project to meet their obligations and said the ball is now on the courts of the other countries to realize the planned project, energy minister said late on Friday.

“The ball is on the court of our partners now. We are expecting them to meet their obligations,” Guler told at the reception to mark the fifth anniversary of foundation of the American Business Forum in Turkey.

The Nabucco pipeline, planned to carry 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Caspian or Middle Eastern gas annually to an Austrian hub via Turkey, is seen as one of Europe’s best hopes for limiting its dependence on Russian gas. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 27th, 2009

The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has said they have discovered rich oil reserves during their oil exploration in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

According to TPAO, the recently discovered reserves are the largest oil reserves ever found in Turkey. The reserves in Diyarbakır’s Taştan village are predicted to amount to 16 million barrels of crude oil. TPAO General Manager Mehmet Uysal, on a visit to the region on Friday, confirmed that the news was accurate. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 25th, 2009

Turkey’s first high-speed train service will begin on March 13. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will inaugurate high-speed train that will make eight round trips a day between the capital city Ankara and central city of Eskişehir.

High-speed train trip will take 1 hour and 20 minutes on the nearly 210-kilometer line between the two cities.

Each train sets has the capacity to carry 419 passengers at a time. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 15th, 2009

The BTC pipeline transports oil from the Caspian region, particularly Azerbaijani oil, to European and world markets.

The recent increases in the price of natural gas have caused a row among the partners of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which transports Azerbaijani oil to international markets.

Because the price increases have also raised operation costs for BOTAŞ International Limited (BIL), a branch of the Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) that operates the Turkey section of the BTC, it asked that part of these rising costs be covered by BTC Co., the main operator of the pipeline. BTC Co. rejected BIL’s request, advising it to use liquid fuel from the pipeline, sold for $18 per barrel. (more…)