Shell Oil in talks to export Iraqi gas via Turkey.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks with Türkiye Petrolleri AO, Turkey's state oil company, to build a pipeline to export Iraqi natural gas via Turkey. Shell and Türkiye Petrolleri are working on a memorandum of understanding on the project, to be run by the Turkish Energy Ministry, said Canan Ediboğlu, 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 Türkiye Petrolleri included construction of the pipeline and “looking at the upstream gas opportunities of Iraq,” Ediboğlu 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 Çalık Group on joining their $2 billion crude-oil pipeline from the Black Sea town of Samsun to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Ediboğlu said.Eni and Çalık 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, Ediboğlu 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.
Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANBUL – Bloomberg
