“Tighter controls over the shipping traffic through the straits are inevitably a part of our new role in the global war on terrorism,” a senior military officer told Pipeline World. “Our priority is to prevent illegal activity through the straits, mainly terrorism, rather than to please foreign oil companies.”
Russia’s oil monopoly Transneft complains that shipping delays in the Turkish Straits because of laws restricting the passage of large tankers have hit Russia’s Black Sea crude exports this winter, with tankers piling up at the straits causing delays at the Novorossiisk terminal. “This problem is worrying,” a Russian diplomat in Ankara told Pipeline World. “There may be political reasons in addition to technical problems behind the logjam.”
The two Straits offer the only outlet to world markets for Black Sea oil exports and more than 2.5m. barrels of Russian and Caspian crude and oil products pass through the annually. The military officer said the total crude traffic through the Straits is 130m. tonnes a year. Turkey governs the Straits under the 1936 Montreux convention which guarantees free passage through the waterways for commercial vessels. But the Turkish government recently restricted the passage of tankers more than 200m long to daytime only, citing safety and pollution concerns.
The Russian diplomat said that because the Ankara government did not appear to be interested in seeking a solution to the problem, the Russian monopoly, Transneft, was considering by-passing the Turkish Straits altogether with the help of a new, 193-km (120-mile) pipeline. He did not give any details, but said a short link would be built on Turkish territory to allow crude shipments to by-pass the Bosporus.