Bloomberg: Shell Says in Talks to Export Iraqi Gas Via Turkey (Update1)
By Ayla Jean Yackley
May 1 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks with Turkiye Petrolleri AO, Turkey’s state oil company, to build a pipeline to export Iraqi natural gas via Turkey.
Shell and Turkiye Petrolleri are working on a memorandum of understanding on the project, to be run by the Turkish Energy Ministry, said Canan Ediboglu, Shell’s country chairwoman in Turkey. She said the agreement may be completed “very soon.”
Turkey has said Iraqi gas could be pumped to European Union states through the planned 5 billion-euro ($7.7 billion) Nabucco gas pipeline, which aims to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas by taking fuel from Central Asia, as well as possibly Iran and Egypt.
Talks with Turkiye Petrolleri included construction of the pipeline and “looking at the upstream gas opportunities of Iraq,” Ediboglu said. She didn’t say where the pipeline would be laid in Turkey.
Separately, Shell is continuing talks with Italy’s Eni SpA and Turkey’s Calik Group on joining their $2 billion crude-oil pipeline from the Black Sea town of Samsun to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Ediboglu said.
Eni and Calik began talks on a shareholder agreement for the oil pipeline in 2006. Shell is still working on a feasibility study and looks “positively” on joining the project, Ediboglu said.
The pipeline could carry oil from Kazakhstan to the Mediterranean Sea, she said. Shell is a partner in the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan, in which Eni also holds a stake.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul at[email protected].
Last Updated: May 1, 2008 13:00 EDT
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