By Xinhua,
Ankara : The number of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and oil tanker traffic in Turkey’s straits has grown by 2.6 times in the past 10 years, posing a serious environmental threat to the water, local Today’s Zamam reported on Tuesday.
Turkey’s Bosporus and Canakkale straits are of strategic importance as many countries in the Black Sea region depend on them to exchange goods with the rest of the world.
Despite alternative methods to transport oil and natural gas, traffic in the straits will likely increase in the coming years as these countries, which Turkey has found it hard to convince to use newly emerging alternative energy routes, develop economically, the report said.
Recent oil treaties involving the Russian, Caspian and Kazakh regions point to an even further increase in traffic, in spite of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Blue Stream gas pipeline, it added.
The amount of oil passing through the straits was 164.1 million tons in 2007, up from 63.1 million in 1997, showed statistics from the Coast Guard Command. The figure is estimated to grow to over 200 million tons in 2009.
The Istanbul strait is one of the most narrow points for sea transport in the world. Its winding contours, strong currents and poor visibility due to fog, snow and rain create additional risks.
Approximately 10 percent of the 50,000 vessels that pass through the Istanbul strait every year are oil or liquefied natural gas tankers. The combination of factors has multiplied the risk of a major accident that could have serious environmental consequences and endanger the 13 million residents of this city, the report said.