TNK interested in acquiring refining assets in Turkey

TNK, the Russian oil group merging its assets with BP, said that it was interested in acquiring refining assets in Turkey. The company confirmed that Viktor Vekselberg, CEO, met Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, to discuss TNK's participation in the privatisation of the country's oil refining sector.
It said any such deals could take place outside the terms of the combined joint venture, called TNK-BP, which was finalised earlier this year, although Turkish assets might ultimately be merged into the combined business. Other Russian companies, including Yukos and LUKoil, respectively Russia's largest and second largest oil groups, have in the past expressed interest in expanding their businesses into Turkey.

The Blue Stream pipeline already provides an outlet for Russian gas into Turkey, and the Black Sea is a transit point for Russian oil shipped from its southern port of Novorossiisk. Turkey is collecting bids for the sale of Petkim, its petrochemical concern. It plans by the end of May to launch a tender for Tupras, the country's largest oil refiner, in a privatisation plan designed to raise revenues under an International Monetary Fund pact. The government is aiming to make $ 4 bn from privatisations in 2003.
BP agreed in February to buy a 50 % stake in TNK for $ 6.75 bn, a record transaction in Russia's corporate history. The two companies have said the joint venture, TNK-BP, will try to penetrate new markets, including Turkey, Poland and Greece, as it needs more refining assets to match booming oil output in Russia.

BP has been in Turkey since 1912. Its biggest presence is in the refining and marketing of gasoline and other petroleum products under the BP and Castrol brands.
The company owns 550 service stations and a 68 % share of the Atas refinery and holds a 34.1 % stake in a project to build a 1,000-mile oil pipeline from Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea through Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey's Mediterranean port.