Officials said the Turkish Energy Ministry has scheduled a July 1
meeting to — convene representatives of leading oil companies.
The officials said the focus of the session would be ways to bypass the Bosporus and
Dardenelles straits in the shipment of oil from the Black Sea to Western Europe.
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"Turkey needs to immediately plan alternative routes to the straits
because the chance of a major accident is growing greater by the year," an
official said. "The future is much more in oil pipelines."
Officials said Turkey wants to significantly reduce the annual ship
traffic in the straits from the current 140 million tons of crude oil and
other products. Bosporus and Dardenelles were said to serve as the route of
2.4 million barrels of oil per day aboard 5,500 tankers.