Mehmet Ali Neyzi, CEO of one of the Middle East’s largest contracting firms STFA, discussed how Turkey is losing the leadership of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly with Egypt making moves to utilize the deep natural gas reserves found in the vicinity of Lebanon-Cyprus-Israel.
Mehmet Ali Neyzi, CEO of one of the Middle East’s largest contracting firms STFA, discussed how Turkey is losing the leadership of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly with Egypt making moves to utilize the deep natural gas reserves found in the vicinity of Lebanon-Cyprus-Israel.“I compare the eastern Mediterranean of today to the United Kingdom of 30 years ago,” the CEO of STFA, Mehmet Ali Neyzi, told Bugün daily in an interview. “The UK was going through a difficult time, but some gas was discovered to the north of the country during the time of Prime Minister Thatcher and the entire country’s fate changed. We’re now in a similar situation with the extraordinarily large reserves discovered in the waters off Lebanon-Cyprus-Israel. That is going to need investment to extract.”
Neyzi said that managing the natural gas together provides the best opportunity to resolve the Cyprus issue and improve relations with both Greece and Israel, turning the eastern Mediterranean into “a sea of peace.” However, noting that Egyptian President Sisi was in Cyprus ten days earlier, and that Greece, Egypt and Cyprus had already begun cooperating to transport the gas down to Egypt, “We need to not lose our leadership position here; in fact, we need to be ‘pioneers’.”
Pointing out how Turkey uses 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year compared to Egypt’s 10 billion, “We actually have a lot of knowledge in this field and are a leading country. But we need to be cautious, because Turkey is losing its leadership.”
Former STFA CEO İlker Keremoğlu had said that construction rises and falls, so the company needed to invest in energy as well. At the time the firm was getting involved with natural gas distribution, and it currently distributes gas to 900,000 customers in 10 provinces, making it the second largest gas distribution company after Aksa Energy.
He also points out how there is an amazing move towards investments in the Middle East. “In order to prevent public rioting like in the ‘Arab Spring,’ the local administrations are now attempting to provide every form of opportunity for their people,” he said, “And so they’re having all sorts of investments in infrastructure. Roads, bridge building and metro investments are on the rise.”
The company operates in many countries, adds Neyzi, “Every year we bring USD 600 million in foreign currency to Turkey.”
BGN News .com
