A giant construction ship began its passage through the Bosphorus on Monday, July 6, en route to the Black Sea to lay the off-shore section of a multi-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The vessel "Saipem 7000"—190 meters (627 feet) long, 80 meters wide and 135 meters high—entered the 31-kilometer (19-mile) Bosphorus, which cuts through Turkey's biggest city Istanbul, at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the agency said.
The 117,812-ton vessel was being tugged by four boats with help from two Turkish captains on how to navigate the sharp turns and treacherous currents of the narrow waterway, Hucum Tulgar, the head of the Turkish ship rescue agency, told Anatolia.
Two fire-fighting ships and two rescue boats were protectively put on stand-by, while the Bosphorus was closed to other traffic while the construction ship made its journey, he added.
Anatolia reported that the ship's cranes and construction towers were folded into a horizontal position for the first time so that it could safely pass under two suspension bridges over the Bosphorus.
The ship also took on water to lower its flotation level before navigating under the Bogazici and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges, it added.
The Saipem 7000 will begin work in September on laying the off-shore section of the 1,213-kilometre (758-mile) gas link, dubbed "Blue Stream", at a depth of 2,150 meters (over 7,000 feet), making it the deepest pipeline in the world.
The pipeline will run from the Izobilnoy gas plant in southern Russia across the Black Sea bed to the Turkish port of Samsun and then to Ankara.
It is expected to become operational in early 2002 and will initially carry eight billion cubic meters (280 billion cubic feet) of gas a year.
The annual volume will be increased to 16 billion cubic meters (560 billion cubic feet) in 2003.
The project—labelled commercially unviable by critics—has been under investigation as part of a massive probe into allegations of large-scale corruption in energy tenders that resulted in the resignation of Turkey's energy minister Cumhur Ersumer in April. — (AFP)
© Agence France Presse
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
