Russian natural gas prices

KIEV, October 25 (RIA Novosti) - A sharp rise in Russian natural gas prices will create a shock situation in bilateral relations with Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said Tuesday. According to Anatoliy Kinakh, relations between the two countries will take a negative turn if Russia raises its natural gas price from $50 to $90-$120 per 1,000 cu m.

"Europe gets 40% of gas via the Ukrainian gas transportation system and a sharp rise in the Russian natural gas price will affect the European economy as well," Kinakh said.

According to Kinakh, pricing should be left unchanged in 2006 and, starting in 2007, Russia and Ukraine should start gradually moving towards higher gas prices.

Kinakh also said it was important for Ukraine to partially diversify its sources of gas and oil supplies and introduce energy-saving technologies at its enterprises.

Coal fired new thermal power plants by Private companies

ANKARA - Turkish Ministry of Energy announced that the private sector companies may apply to construct the following coal fired thermal power plants in order to increase the supply of electricity generation based on local resources. The following coal fired power plants are named within that scheme

Çankırı-Orta 100 MWe

Bingöl-Karlıova 100 MWe

Tekirdağ-Saray 300 MWe

Adana-Tufanbeyli 600 MWe

Bursa-Davutlar 160 Mwe

Bolu-Göynük 150 MWe

Manisa-Eynez 600 MWe

Kütahya-Derin 300 MWe

Total 2.310 MWe

Source. Dunya daily 17th October 2005

Cyprus 35 MWe New power plant tender

Preparations have been made for the tender to construct a new power station
Under the above title Turkish Cypriot "Cyprus Times" newspaper (13.10.05) reports the following:

"A study has been released outlining the building of two new 17.5MW power stations at Teknecik (near occupied Klepini) which will be built solely by the Cyprus electricity board (Kib Tek). A meeting was held at the (self-styled) Ministry of Finance for the bidding which was announced by the Central Tendering Commission (MIK) final applications will end on 18 October. The meeting was attended by the Central Tendering committee Members, KIB-TEK, foreign firms and the experts from Turkish Electricity Production Corporation from Turkey.

According to the information given by the 'Ministry of Finance', the meeting lasted two hours.

At the meeting information was given on the technicalities of the terms and conditions of the tendering. It was agreed to work with speed to close the tendering process in time on the 18.11.2005.

Turkey Underground Natural Gas Storage Orientation Visit

Turkey Underground Natural Gas Storage Orientation Visit

DATE: OCTOBER 24-28, 2005

LOCATIONS: Houston; Washington, D.C.

USTDA is sponsoring an orientation visit for officials from BOTAS, the Turkish oil and gas company to learn about production processes, new technologies, service providers, and equipment vendors which are a part of the U.S. underground natural gas storage sector. BOTAS will also present the upcoming Tuz Golu Gas Storage project that is expected for bidding in early 2006. A business briefing will be held in Houston on October 25 at the World Trade Center.

For more information, contact Dale Rice ( darice@mse-environmental.com ) of Millennium Science & Engineering, Inc. by telephone at (703) 961-0710.

Turkey to privatize power plants in 2006

14 October 2005-TURKEY /ANKARA
Cihan News Agency-Business

The flurry of privatizations in Turkey will continue with the sell-off of electricity power plants across the country next year.

Turkish Energy and Natural Sources Minister Himi Güler said that the privatization board would first sell the energy distribution companies and later would sell off the power plants.

The Turkish government has made record-breaking $20 billion from privatizations in 2005.

The privatization board, backed by the energy ministry, has commenced the preliminary preparations for the sale of the power plants.

Turkish firm to build local power station in Israel

Last update - 02:56 12/10/2005
Turkish firm to build local power station
By The Associated Press

ANKARA - A Turkish company signed an agreement yesterday to build a $360 million power station in southern Israel. Ministry of National Infrastructure Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who oversaw the signing of the deal between Turkey's Zorlu Energy Group and Israeli firm Solbar Industries, praised the deal as helping to strengthen ties between the Muslim and Jewish countries.

Turkish-Israeli trade is expected to reach $2.5 billion this year, not including military sales. Some 400,000 Israeli tourists are also expected to visit Turkey this year.

Israel regards ties with Turkey as crucial as it is one of the only Muslim countries to have close ties with both Israel and Arab countries.

Israel's goal "is to try and deepen and strengthen relations between Turkey and Israel," Ben-Eliezer said in an interview with The Associated Press. He pointed to the Pakistani-Israeli meeting in Istanbul, and said that Israel "would like to see Turkey continue" acting as a bridge "especially with the Islamic and Arab countries."

Relations cooled down last year after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused his Israeli counterpart of "terrorism," compared Israel's crackdown against Palestinians to the Spanish Inquisition, and said Israeli actions fuel anti-Semitism.

But ties recently improved, and Erdogan visited Israel earlier this year.