Turkey invites Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan for energy projects

"We will start drilling the Black Sea in 2009, and I am inviting you to cooperate with us in this drilling project," Guler said during a conference on "Oil and Gas Potential in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan: Energy, Economy and Ecology Cooperation Strategy" in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

Guler also referred to the Nabucco project, saying the project would be implemented, just as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas projects had.

The Nabucco pipeline is a planned natural gas pipeline that will transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.

It will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria. This pipeline is a diversion from the current methods of importing natural gas solely from Russia. The project is backed by the European Union and the United States.

Guler also said that the Nabucco project would ensure energy security not only in Turkey, but also in Europe.

Turkey aimed to invest some $125 billion in energy projects until 2020, and planned to allocate $100 billion of this amount for electricity generation, he added.

Guler said that the oil transportation through the Turkish straits was up 50 percent in the last three years, and also said that Turkey aimed to implement the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project to protect Istanbul from this ecological threat.

"Central Asian and Kazakh oil will be transferred to Ceyhan with this pipeline project," he said, adding that Turkey also aimed to make Ceyhan an energy center.