Foreign oil good for Turkish future, official says

CEYHAN, Turkey, July 7 (UPI) -- The Turkish sea port of Ceyhan has a bright future as a regional hub for Caspian and Iraqi oil, a Turkish business representative said Monday.

Ceyhan is the terminal point for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline from the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline from northern Iraq.

Seref Can, president of the Ceyhan Chamber of Commerce, said the future looks bright for the western sea port.

"A petrochemical plant is planned to be built here," he said Monday. "If these [business developments] accrue, more investors will come to the district."

Two shipments of crude oil from the semiautonomous Kurdish north of Iraq left Ceyhan last month. The exports riled the federal government in Baghdad, which says oil exports are illegal without its express consent.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in early June he was opposed to Baghdad's objections. Any export of oil from Iraq would provide benefits to the entire country, he said.

The U.S. government has sided with Baghdad on the export row. Nevertheless, the Chamber of Commerce president said Ceyhan's "long-term future is very bright."