IP/07/545
Commissioner Piebalgs welcomes commencement construction of the Samsun – Ceyhan oil pipeline

Brussels, Belgium – The first stone of the Samsun – Ceyhan oil pipeline was laid 2007-04-24 by the TAPCO company formed by Calik and Eni. This new infrastructure will link the Turkish ports of Samsun in the Black Sea with the South East Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The construction of this pipeline will further reduce the increasing pressure of maritime oil transport through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straights.

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs welcomed the new construction saying "This Black Sea export route will increase secure oil supplies for the EU and the world markets, an essential condition for our new energy policy. Additional quantities of oil expected from the region in the coming years and the increasing density of maritime traffic in the enclosed Black Sea make it essential to give a higher priority to the alternative of transporting oil by pipelines ".

The Samsun – Ceyhan pipeline will have a length of 550 km and a yearly capacity of initially 50 and later 70 million tons of crude oil after its opening scheduled for 2011.

The Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline will come in support of other projects to easy the heavy tanker traffic of the the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straights, such as the Burgass-Alexandropolis and the Constanza-Trieste pipelines.

More information about Burgass-Alexandropolis pipeline – IP/07/335
More information about Constanza-Trieste pipeline – IP/07/464