Todays Zaman Cited Mr Sergei Shmatko energy minister of Russia as saying that Russia and Turkey will build an oil refinery in the Mediterranean to maximize profits from a joint pipeline project.

Mr Shmatko said that “We want to build a major refinery and jointly sell oil products from the Mediterranean coast.”

The comment follows a deal between Italy, Russia and Turkey last week under which Russia agreed to participate in building a pipeline from the Turkish Black Sea port of Samsun to Ceyhan in the Mediterranean.

Russia and Kazakhstan said that they would supply crude for the new link which is designed to reduce tanker traffic through Turkey’s narrow and busy Black Sea straights.

Italy’s Eni and Turkey’s Çalık hold 50% each in the 550 kilometers pipeline which will have a maximum capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day.

Russia’s agreement to participate in Samsun Ceyhan after years of skepticism about the project surprised analysts, who said it could have been a barter deal with Ankara which agreed to support Russia’s South Stream gas link.

South Stream is designed to cut Russia’s reliance on Ukraine in shipping gas to the European Union. Russia is keen to have South Stream built ahead of the rival EU backed Nabucco gas pipeline which wants to transit Azeri and central Asian gas to southern Europe via Turkey.

(Sourced from Todays Zaman)