Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said the new shipping canal proposed by Turkey would handle 150-160 ships per day, IHS World Markets Energy reported.
The waterway, proposed as an alternate to the cramped Bosporus, would take eight years to build for an estimated US$10 billion, Topbas added.
The Canal Istanbul scheme to link the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara was unveiled yesterday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ships would still need to transit the Dardanelles to reach the Aegean Sea.
As IHS Fairplay reported recently, the canal would run 45-50km in length, with a depth of about 25m and a width of 150m, added Erdogan, who said it would accommodate ships up to 300,000dwt.
It would cut through government-owned land – mostly undeveloped forest – just west of Istanbul, reported the Wall Street Journal, which added that backers claim it would create thousands of jobs for workers at Turkish companies.
“Erdogan’s unveiling of the plan, which has long been dreamed about by Turkish strategic thinkers, came across in large part as an election-season ploy, and the political opposition dismissed it as such, citing the cost and unrealistic nature
of the still-half-baked proposal,” IHS World Markets Energy commented.
The prime minister said today’s long waits to enter the Bosporus, which is just 700m wide at its narrowest point and has strong currents and several blind turns, cost shippers US$1.4 billionn per year.
The scheme might be aimed at gaining leverage for Turkey in talks with Russia to secure commitments of crude for the as-yet-unbuilt Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, one of a range of other Bosporus bypass pipeline proposals, IHS World Markets Energy said.
If Canal Istanbul is built, “the rationale for projects such as Samsun-Ceyhan and the
Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline linking Bulgaria to Greece could be undermined”, it pointed out, however adding: “Rising levels of oil exports from Kazakhstan and Russia could still necessitate construction of pipelines to bypass the Bosporus if Turkish officials intend to divert all oil traffic away from [it], as Erdogan insinuated yesterday.”
via Canal Istanbul detailed – Dredging News Online.
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