Energy Minister Calls On German Firms To Invest In Turkey
ANKARA - Turkey`s energy minister invited German firms on Thursday to invest in energy projects in Turkey.
Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said a total of 130 billion USD of energy investment is foreseen till 2020.
During a meeting of the Turkish-German Cooperation Council, Guler enumerated Turkey`s energy projects as nuclear power plants, lignite power stations, dams, wind stations, mine exploration, geothermal and hydrogen power plants, renewable energy, energy efficiency and electricity distribution lines.
A number of Turkish and German investors participated in the council that held its 14th meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
"Our biggest investments are Afsin-Elbistan C and D thermal power plants as there are significant lignite beds there. We want to generate electricity from coal with clean technologies," Guler said during a meeting of the Turkish-German Cooperation Council.
He said Turkish and German firms might cooperate in wind, production of devices that would assure energy efficiency and energy distribution lines.
The Turkish minister also said authorities would call for a tender within a few weeks time to privatize electricity distribution. Guler Also said German RWE company had been chosen as the sixth partner in the Nabucco project.
The Nabucco project is a planned 3,300 kilometres natural gas pipeline that will carry 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 an alternative to the current projects developed to import natural gas from Russia. It will be connected with the Tabriz-Erzurum pipeline, and with the South Caucasus Pipeline, linking Nabucco Pipeline with the planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline.
The project is developed by the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, established in 2004 in Vienna. The shareholders of the company are: OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), BOTAS (Turkey) and RWE (Germany).
(BRC-ULG)
