Gulf crisis may benefit Turkey, investor says

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The Kirkuk-Yumurtalık pipeline can substitute the Hormuz, Öğütçü says. AA photo

A possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz could increase Turkey’s importance, international energy investor and professional Mehmet Öğütçü has said.

The capacity utilization of the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık pipeline could increase to 100 percent from the current one-fourth thanks to such a development, he recently told Anatolia news agency. “The oil and gas from the Gulf can be transferred to the north,” he said.

However, there is little possibility that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed, according to Öğütçü, noting that it is Iran’s main oil export gateway.

Some 17 million barrels of crude oil are transported through Hormuz, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the daily global crude oil trade. Also, 33 percent of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) is transported through the strait.

With one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, Iran alone has the potential to change the game fundamentally if a reformist government comes to power in the Islamic republic, Öğütçü said.
Öğütçü, a former senior executive at the International Energy Agency, is a board member at Genel Energy and the president of the Global Resources Corporation.