Turkey, in energy as in geography, lies between two
worlds. It doesn't regard itself as part of Asia, but it's
not sure whether the EU is willing to consider it part of
Europe. This complicates its approach to energy issues: it
wants to be European, but it also wants to be respected in
its own right.
Moreover, it wants, if possible, to deepen its energy
relations with Russia, while also helping to develop a
non-Russian energy corridor to Europe. And while the outside
world focuses on Turkey's potential as an energy transit
corridor, the country has pressing domestic energy needs of
its own.
Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi
Güler says that Turkey wants to be more than just a transit
country, even though some 110 million tons of crude oil and
a further 40 million tons of refined products routinely
transit the twin Turkish Straits of the Bosporus and
Dardanelles each year.
In addition, two giant cross-border pipelines traverse
the country, ending at the Turkish Mediterranean port of
Ceyhan: the recently completed $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
Pipeline carrying Azerbaijani (and eventually Kazakh) crude
and the nominally 1.5 million b/d twin lines from Kirkuk in
Iraq, which have frequently been out of action since the
US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Moreover, Turkey's future potential for providing a
conduit for gas
to travel to Europe from the Middle East, Russia and the
states of Central Asia underlines its central importance to
European energy strategy.
Created: November 7, 2007
