BOTAŞ


BOTAŞ Petroleum Pipeline Corporation is the state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company in Turkey. The company was established in 1974 as a subsidiary of Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı. Since 1995, BOTAS is a wholly state-owned company.

History

BOTAŞ was originally established in 1974 for construction and operation of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline. Since 1987, BOTAŞ has been also involved in the natural gas transportation and trade activities. From February 9, 1990 until May 2, 2001, BOTAŞ had monopoly rights on natural gas import, distribution, sales and pricing. In practice, the gas distribution monopoly of BOTAŞ ended only in 2007, when Royal Dutch Shell and Bosphorus Gaz, a joint venture of Gazprom and Tur Enerji, started to sell natural gas in the market.

Pipeline operations

In addition to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, BOTAŞ owns and operates Ceyhan-Kırıkkale, Batman-Dörtyol, and Şelmo-Batman crude oil pipelines. It also owns and operates the national gas grid of Turkey with total length of, and Marmara Ereğlisi Liquefied Natural Gas Import Terminal. Internationally BOTAŞ participates in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Arab Gas Pipeline section between Syria and Turkey, and Turkey-Greece pipeline. It is also partner in the Nabucco Pipeline project.