PRESS RELEASES

US Embassy Statement

US Offers Congratulations on Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Groundbreaking

Ankara, April 24, 2007

The United States congratulates Turkey and the developers of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline for the historic groundbreaking of a project that has great potential for enhancing global energy security as an alternative to the congested Bosporus Straits.

We strongly support the concept of multiple pipelines to enhance global competition and to ensure diversity and security of energy supply.   We wish the Samsun-Ceyhan project well in gaining oil throughput commitments to achieve its commercial success.  Building on the success of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, we are supportive of the development of Ceyhan as an energy center.

The United States also looks forward to continuing to work with Turkey and its neighbors on regional cooperation and toward establishing the commercial framework necessary for sustaining a southern gas corridor to Turkey, and through Turkey to the rest of Europe, from countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq.