Russia handed a new draft of the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline agreement to the Turkish government in December, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft's President Nikolai Tokarev said on Thursday.
"The Russian side presented our draft of the cooperation agreement when we were in Istanbul in late December, so we can see that cooperation on the project is tangible. The emphasis is on development of a normal economic model," Tokarev said.
Some difficulties remain, but the participants are working hard to overcome them, Tokarev said.
"The participants, as part of the working group, are meeting almost every month, attracting experts and consultants. This is already not just a conversation, as it was last year. Today we have already made all the calculations," Tokarev said.
The Turkish side has proposed another meeting again in Istanbul in late January, Tokarev said but declined to comment on likely topics for discussion.
In September, Tokarev complained that Turkey was offering Russia unfavorable terms for the project. Moscow then presented Turkey with a draft agreement offering oil supplies of 25 million tons per year, well below the initially agreed volume of 60-70 million tons.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said in December that Russia and Turkey hoped to agree on investment in the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline project before the middle of March.
The Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline is designed to carry 60-70 million tons of oil per year from the Turkish port of Samsun on the Black Sea to a Mediterranean terminal in Ceyhan to ease tanker traffic burden in the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.
MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti)
