Statoil AS has signed a deal with Turkey's KOC Holdings to form a jointly-owned Turkish gas company that will take the Norwegian energy giant into that country's downstream gas market once liberalization gets underway.
"We've now taken a step into the Turkish market," said Statoil Project Director for European Gas Per Lindberg. "This will be an important factor in achieving profitable sales for our Shah Deniz gas reserves in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian."
He said the deal confirms that cooperation between Statoil and the KOC group of industrial companies will be "extended."
"Both sides can now contribute actively to speeding up deregulation of the Turkish market and to positioning the new company as an important downstream player there," Lindberg added.
The new company will open an office in Istanbul in keeping with "the obligations and opportunities which follow from the deal," he said.