Turkey refuses Ukraine permission to sail LNG tankers through Bosphorous

Turkey refuses Ukraine permission: Turkey will not allow  tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG)  heading for Ukraine to pass through the  Bosphorus Strait  its ambassador to Kiev Yonet Can Tezel said  last week. “The passage of LNG tankers through the Bosphorus is a problematic issue,”  he explained.  “First of all, this relates to safety in the strait which is quite busy and narrow. Istanbul is a densely populated city while LNG tankers are considerably larger than oil tankers. In case of incidents, and such things happened with oil tankers, the consequences for the population and Istanbul would be disastrous,” the Turkish ambassador said.
Turkey’s decision will be a blow to Ukraine’s hopes of finding an alternative and more cost-effective energy supply to Russia, and probably puts pay to  its plans to set up a deal with Qatar. Tezel insisted that his government’s decision was taken purely on safety grounds. “We would have replied in the same way to any other Black Sea neighbour, which would have turned to us with a request for the passage of LNG-tankers across the Bosphorus,” he added. Ukraine has been planning to spend around €959m on a pipeline and  an  LNG terminal on its  Black Sea coast.