Turkey Seeks Advanced Security for Pipelines, Strategic Locations

[Hakan]

Turkey Seeks Advanced Security for Pipelines, Strategic Locations

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ANKARA — The Turkish government, feeling threatened by unstable regimes and hostile governments in its vicinity, is setting off to provide advanced security for its pipelines and other strategically important buildings, bridges and military bases.

In two separate biddings, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) procurement agency has invited private companies to propose solutions.

The bidding document calls for “integrated security systems for all existing and future oil and natural gas pipelines, management facilities and other units on these pipelines.”

The integrated security systems will protect Turkish pipelines from security threats like sabotage, attack and theft, the document says.

SSM will respond to bidders’ introductory documents from Sept. 15, and the contenders will be asked to make bids no later than Oct. 15.

“The idea originated when the state pipeline company felt that its own security services may fail in case of a concerted or sophisticated attack on any Turkish pipeline. We think this task requires the services of a professional company or companies for an integrated system,” one procurement official said.

Botas, the state pipeline company, runs thousands of kilometers-long pipelines and operates its own security system for protection.

The procurement official said the proposed system would feature cameras, drones, a command-and-control center and a rapid-reaction force. “Depending on the features that will be chosen, this program may come at the tune of a few hundred million dollars,” he said.

Procurement officials said the program intends to protect existing and future pipelines, especially in Turkey’s southeast. The project comes as oil revenues are a lifeline for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, whose peshmerga forces are being supported by US airstrikes in their battle against the radical Sunni militants of Islamic State.

A pipeline, which began operating at the start of this year, allows the semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave to independently pump and export oil, carrying northern Iraqi Taq Taq crude to Turkey’s Mediterranean export outlet of Ceyhan. The KRG began independently exporting its crude via Ceyhan in May, a move that has infuriated Baghdad, which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil.

Plans for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), and the subsequent blossoming of further pipeline plans pumping gas out of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Iraq to Europe, raise Turkey’s stature as a major energy transit country. Such plans are bound to elevate the country’s economic outlook.

An energy official said Turkey is the answer to Europe’s energy security concerns. “In particular, Europe’s fear of being vulnerable to Russian price manipulations could prove valuable. For all that pipeline security is a major issue for us,” he said.

Meanwhile, SSM also has invited bids for a contract designed to protect “sensitive locations.” A total of 11 Turkish defense electronics companies have responded to a request for information.

The program calls for sophisticated protection against “guided weapons.”

A military official said these “sensitive locations” would include Bosporus and future bridges, some military bases, future nuclear energy plants and some dams.

“The anticipated threat here is precision strike with sophisticated missile technology,” he said.

He explained that the basic logic for the planned protection system would be similar to those of naval vessels. “More or less the same idea… Sensors, missile detection systems, jamming and deception systems and air defense guns,” he said.

One industry source said this program too may come with a big price tag, but the final number would depend on how many locations it will be expected to cover. ■

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