Turkish Energy Picture in 2006
December 29, 2006
Resat Arim

During the past year, developments in the energy field have come to compensate the negative occurrences as far as Turkey-EU relations are concerned. They have proven to Europe in a very tangible way how the life-line of the continent crosses Turkey. Energy may be one of the links that will securely tie Turkey to Europe. It is also a reflection of the many bounds between Europe and Turkey, providing EU with opening to the outside world.
Let us first look to Turkey’s potential.
Turkey is indeed fast becoming an energy transit hub. The completion in July 2006 of Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is adding a new dimension to Turkey’s importance for the European energy security. EU Commissioner Piebalgs in his speech of 25 May 2005 said that this pipeline was a milestone project for security of supply. The decision to add the Kazakh oil into this pipeline shows the support of this Central Asian state to Turkey’s position. A new project is under discussion to have an oil pipeline inside Turkey from the Black Sea port of Samsun to Ceyhan. This will relieve the Bosphorus from the burden of the heavy tanker traffic. Of course there is always the old Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline coming from Iraq.
As to natural gas routes, the direct connection between Russia and Turkey is the “Blue Stream” going under the Black Sea. This was inaugurated in November 2005. There is another gas transportation route under operation for many years between Russia and Turkey transiting Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. Presently, there is a project to have a parallel gas pipeline from Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan. Another project to have a gas pipeline parallel to the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline is envisaged. We should also remember that Turkey is receiving gas from Iran through Tebriz-Erzurum pipeline. Egypt and Algeria are also selling natural gas to Turkey.
The main project to transport gas from Turkey to Europe is the Nabucco gas pipeline project. It will run from Turkey to Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria. The energy ministers of these countries met with EU Energy Commissioner on 26 June 2006 to accelerate work to build the pipeline in the shortest possible time.
Turkish potential in the energy field has been greatly appreciated by the European Union in 2006 when EU got involved in a major appraisal of energy security in Europe. Already the Commission Green Paper in November 2000 on security of energy supply predicted that, if no action was taken, the EU’s energy dependency would climb from 50% in 2000 to 70% in 2030.
The debate on the need for a European energy policy started again in 2006, because of the rising oil and gas prices and Europe’s increasing dependency on a few external suppliers. (They are mainly OPEC and Russia) The Ukraine-Russia gas dispute in January 2006 has certainly gave an urgency to the problem. That is how the EU Commission opened the debate with the publication of a Green Paper in March 2006. The debate will culminate when the Commission will present a strategic energy review in January 2007 and the EU heads of states and governments may adopt an action plan in March 2007. The Commission Green Paper lists six key priority areas, mainly on technical issues, but also emphasizes the need for a common external energy policy.
In May 2006, the Commission and the Secretary General/High Representative issued a joint paper on “an external policy to serve Europe’s energy interests”. The paper considered how EU external relations, including CFSP, can be used more effectively to secure reliable, affordable and environmentally sustainable energy. The guiding principles they adopt mainly relate to what can be done in the third countries. As to practical means they propose two building blocks: functioning markets and diversification. To diversify energy sources, geographical origin and transit routes, the EU should facilitate the maintenance and upgrade of existing energy infrastructure in neighbouring countries of key importance to the EU. The attention is drawn to the gas projects in North Africa, Middle East, Caspian region, Russia and Norway which will create new energy corridors. To obtain the desired results, it is proposed to engage with producer, transit and consumer countries. Bilateral, regional and multilateral initiatives are considered. At bilateral level, a comprehensive agreement with Russia, partnerships with Norway and Algeria cooperation with other producer and consumer countries are foreseen. For Turkey the proposal is the following: “Help Turkey to make full use of its potential to become a major energy transit hub and in particular promote its rapid integration with the Energy Community Treaty.”
We can safely say that the energy pipelines in Turkey have already found their place in the energy security of the world and EU in particular.