Monday, February 26, 2007

Orhaneli Coal Mines



Dear Colleagues,

On February 24, 2000 I visited the Orhaneli Mine with Mr. Clark A. Moseley, VP of The North American Coal Corporation, USA. This is our joint report

Article is released in The Journal of Turkish Weekly

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Turkish Steam Generator Design Tender




Dear Colleagues,

We have been very pleased to learn that

Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) together with
Turkish Electricity Generation Public Company (EUAS)

have released a new tender for design activities to obtain design drawings for 170 MWe or more electricity generating power plant which will fire local indigenous coal/ lignite in either pulverised or CFB firing methods.

Contract is purely for steam boiler design activities to obtain drawings for 3-different local coal samples,

for the ranges 1000-1400, 1400-1800, 1500-2000 kcal/kg LHV.

We understand that the local interested engineering parties would be in need of necessary design software/ hardware and young local engineering talents to finalise the design work within 270 calendar days. Proposal Validity is to be 90 days.

Priced proposals will be collected on 22nd March 2007.

Contract budget is estimated not to exceed a figure of 20 million US Dollars

For such a big/ mega project, one company can not handle all work so consortiums will be formed. A location in a university technopark will be a preferable place to work in order to utilize the hardware/ software backbone as well as available engineering/ academic workforce.

That is an extra ordinary development in the local market, a great opportunity for our engineering companies, to sail overseas. We are very happy to learn that the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources showed confidence in local young engineering talent.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Afsin Elbistan, A critical look to the Turkish Energy sector



Dear Colleagues

There is an old saying, attributed variously to the Scottish, the Native Americans, and the Chinese, which goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

The most important electric power generation projects are in "Afsin Elbistan" region where the largest lignite mines are located in Turkey; including almost half of the proven reserves. Turkish Electricity Generation Public Company has already built two groups of four units, each group with 4X340 (1360) MWe electricity generating output capacity. These are tendered internationally. German/ USA/ Japan companies have received the contracts based on their past similar experiences in their home countries or elsewhere.

Article is released in the Journal of Turkish Weekly

Saturday, February 10, 2007

President vetoes new Turkish Petroleum Law


President Ahmet Necdet Sezer notes that no activity can be held above national security interests, including oil production. The president vetoed a bill regulating the export of oil and petroleum products on Tuesday, citing risks to national security.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's explained the reasons for his veto saying that the bill made crude oil – a resource of strategic importance – subject to exporting activities, thus creating a risk for national security, the presidential press office said on Tuesday.

The statement compared the bill to an older law dating back to the year 1954. The first article of the proposed law aims to improve and expand oil production while its third article proposes regulating the licensing of oil production and resale but did not stipulate that national interests would be made a priority to achieve its stated purpose. The article also would call for review of license applications, which are mentioned in relevant articles of the 1954 oil law. Details about how national interests would be protected were also excluded in other articles of the stipulated law, in contrast to the two articles in the 1954 law that prescribe methods of securing national interests in detail.

The statement also said the proposal went against an article in the constitution which stipulates that no activity could be held above national security interests. “In other words, the fact that the protection of national interest is not being explicitly mentioned in the law obviously does not eradicate the responsibilities and duties of state agencies assigned to them by the Constitution. These agencies and officials are under the obligation of preserving national interests and public good as a priority in every activity and procedure.

Undoubtedly, this responsibility is larger when the products in question are of high strategic value such as oil and natural gas resources.”Sezer said the proposed law did not explicitly clarify the percentages of petroleum and natural gas products to be allotted for domestic use or exports, allowing these products to be sold to other countries without regard to the domestic consumption requirements.

Another reason for the veto was ambiguity in the percentage of state ownership of oil produced in the country.

The president, who said resources located in the country's territory belonged to the entire nation, urged the introduction of limitations on exportation of crude oil and natural gas in the proposed law.

Oil production in TurkeyOil provides over 40 percent of Turkey's total energy requirements, but its share is declining as the share of natural gas rises.

Around 90 percent of Turkey's oil supplies are imported, mainly from the Middle East and Russia. Turkey's port of Ceyhan is a major outlet for Iraqi oil exports, but oil flows have been sporadic since late March 2003, following the outbreak of the Iraq war.

Three companies account for the majority of Turkey's oil production – the Turkish State Petroleum Company (TPAO), and foreign operators Royal Dutch/Shell (Shell) and ExxonMobil.

In December 2003, a petroleum market reform bill was passed in parliament which aims to remove state controls on the sector, to liberalize the pricing of oil and oil products, end restrictions on vertical integration, and integrate pipelines, refining, and distribution functions.

In early 2004, the Turkish government approved the sale of a 66.76 percent stake in the then state-owned oil-refiner Tüpras for $1.3 billion to a group led by Russia's Tatneft. In late May 2004, a Turkish court suspended the sale after a union filed a lawsuit claiming that privatization procedures were not properly followed.

Turkish Daily News- Istanbul
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