Çalık set to found joint venture with Rosneft

ISTANBUL

A general view shows the Rosneft Achinsk oil refinery plant outside the town of Achinsk, some 188 kilometers west of Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Energy ties fueled a Russian visit to Turkey Nov. 3 with Turkey’s Çalık Holding signing a major cooperation with Rosneft, Russia’s leading oil distributer.

The duo will establish an associated company to operate within the oil trade in the domestic and Mediterranean markets, according to a statement published on Çalık’s official web site. The new company will also operate in the oil distribution and bunker fuel trade in Turkey.

The deal was signed by Çalık Holding Chairman Ahmet Çalık and Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov. Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yıldız and Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin were in attendance at the signing ceremony.

The deal will work to move forward the successful cooperation between the two companies, Khudainatov said, according to the company statement.

The cooperation between Turkey and Russia will continue to increase and the agreement in oil trade is part of this relation on the national level, Sechin said. “Turkey is our strategic partner in this region,” Sechin said. No further deals were revealed.

Deals enhance ties

The agreement was of 11 undersigned deals spanning from cooperation against financial crimes and a capital raise for the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear plant. They include two deals by Sberbank with Turkish Eximbank and Turkey’s Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT).
The deals between the ministries, state institutions and firms were signed at the High Level Cooperation Council (ÜDİK) meeting in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

One of the most important deals was signed between Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigative Board (MASAK) and Russian Federation Financial Control Agency. The memorandum of understanding envisages cooperation between the two countries to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. An intergovernmental agreement regarding the Medium Term Program on Commercial, Economic, Scientific and Technical Fields for the period 2012 and 2015 was another highlight of the series of deals.

The parties signed a joint declaration regarding the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and Erdoğan yesterday praised Russia’s $700 million additional capital flow to Turkey for the construction of the project, a figure that may be increased to $800 million.

A joint declaration regarding a meeting between Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız and his Russian counterpart Aleksandr Novak, the co-chairs of the Turkish-Russian Intergovernmental Joint Economic Commission emphasized the energy relations between Turkey and Russia.