ISTANBUL
Turkey is not only a large importer of energy, but a bridge between resources and markets, the president of BP Turkey, Bud Fackrell, said Friday.
"Turkey has been a regional energy hub for years," Fackrell said, speaking at the conference "International Platform for Young Entrepreneurs" in Istanbul, organized by Istanbul's Bilgi University.
"As a major investor in Turkey’s economy and energy sector for 100 years, with a significant presence in both downstream and upstream, BP cares a lot about Turkey," Fackrell said.
"Turkey is also an important partner for Azerbaijan and can play a strong role in regional energy stability," he added.
Fackrell said that global energy consumption will increase 41 percent by 2035.
"Turkey, being in the middle of existing and planned oil/gas pipelines, is a key country in realizing the $45 billion Southern Gas Corridor which is planned as an alternative energy supply to Europe."
The Southern Gas Corridor will transport Caspian gas to European countries via Turkey.
Turkey will host over half of the facilities, and most of the integral equipment of the BP-operated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, Fackrell said.
The Trans-Anatolian Pipeline Project is the Turkish phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project which will carry gas from the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Turkey.
The pipeline is aimed at reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian gas. The initial capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor is planned to be 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Turkey is the second biggest partner of the BP Azerbaijan project Shah Deniz, one of the world's largest gas extraction projects, holding a 19 percent share for over 50 years.
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