Chairman of the Turkish group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) and a deputy of the Justice & Development (AK) Party from Manisa Bulent Arinc said Tuesday that "while the amount of dangerous substances that passed through Turkish straits was 60 million tonnes in 1996, this number rose to 143 million tonnes in 2006."

In a speech delivered at the PABSEC General Assembly meeting in Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Arinc drew attention to the risks posed by ever increasing tanker traffic at both the Canakkale and Bosphorus straits.

"The idea of creating alternative routes for carrying oil and natural gas has gained importance," Arinc noted.

"Within this framework, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline was set up. As of October 30th, 2007, 279th tanker was filled with oil at Ceyhan," Arinc indicated.

"The BTC pipeline will not meet the requirments of the Caspian region. As such, we have begun working on Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline," Arinc also said.

"The energy trading in the region presents the countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) new opportunities of cooperation. The various pipeline projects among BSEC members should not be viewed as against each other. Rather, each pipeline serves the whole region and complements each other," Arinc stressed.

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Güncelleme Tarihi: 11 Aralık 2007, 14:54