Putin upbeat on Russian-Turkish pipeline project
SOCHI – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project was likely to be a success, RIA Novosti reports.
"I think that it is a feasible project and I have enough grounds to assume that we will complete our work with Turkey," Putin told a meeting with the Valdai International Discussion club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
In 2009, Russia's top oil firms Rosneft and Transneft, the Sovcomflot shipping firm, Turkey's Calik group and Italy's Eni signed an agreement to participate in the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project.
The pipeline is designed to carry oil from the Turkish port of Samsun on the Black Sea to a Mediterranean terminal in Ceyhan.
The Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, expected to carry 60-70 million tons of oil per year, is designed to ease the traffic burden in the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straits.
Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev accused Turkey last week of trying to force unacceptable terms on Russia in negotiations over the pipeline's construction.
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