Indian Oil Corp is paying a paltry $4,360 for a 12.5 per cent stake in the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline Company (TAPCO). That is because it is not yet decided whether TAPCO would take up the pipeline project to ship crude oil from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Samsun to Ceyhan. According to IOC papers, the consortium of ENI SpA. of Italy, Calik Enerji of Turkey and IOC have yet to decide whether the 660-km pipeline is commercially viable or not. TAPCO is conducting the concept definition study after which it will carry out the final investment decision. Compare that with IOC’s statement last December that the development of the project is already under way. It had said that IOC’s participation in the venture would contribute to the successful completion of this project, which aims at bypassing the Turkish Straits. It claimed that the entire deal package had been agreed to in principle and would be submitted soon. At no time did it reveal the price it was paying for the equity in TAPCO. TAPCO has to submit a business proposal by end-February substantiating the technical and commercial reasons for the FID before committing to the project.
