Akfel Commodities
More collaborative thinking needed on European gas markets
Hürriyet Daily News | March/28/2015 CONTRIBUTOR | MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ – CHRISTIAN SCHWARCK There is a Chinese character that equates crisis with opportunity. We face such a situation as the energy market turbulence, created by the oil price collapse, declining investments and geopolitical tensions, is in full swing. The process of adjustment in the energy market is far from...
Energy: A new world challenge and a complex dilemma for Turkey
Hürriyet Daily News | March 2, 2015 MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ The ongoing energy crisis, originating from the substantial and totally unexpected drop in the price of oil, is nothing like what we have seen before. The historic slide has roiled the energy sector, with fallout ranging from stalled oil and gas developments to bankruptcy filings and...
The Turkish Stream: Where to go from here?
Hürriyet Daily News | January 29/2015 Mehmet Öğütçü / Danila Bochkarev | The landmark agreement on the Turkish Stream reached on Jan. 27 shows Moscow’s determination to avoid Ukrainian transit at all costs and start its implementation without delay. If all goes well, natural gas currently flowing from Russia to the EU via Ukraine will in...
Privatization: Who will run Istanbul’s gas grid?
Published by: Hurriyet Daily News | 15 November 2014 | Mehmet Öğütçü | The coming tender to privatize the distribution of Istanbul’s gas to its 5.1 million customers should not be seen as a simple commercial transaction of “whoever pays the most in the bidding round will win the contract.” It is rather strategic...
Forging a new ‘EU-Turkey gas initiative’ in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis?
Published by: Hürriyet Daily News Date: September/23/2014 MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ / SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA The ongoing game-changers in energy and geopolitics will likely force Ankara and Brussels to consider a joint strategy over how to achieve gas supply security, particularly in view of what’s happening in the Black Sea region, the Western sanctions against Russia and...
Need for developing our new generation of business leaders
Published by Hurriyet Daily News | Date: June/30/2014 MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ / ANDREW ROSCOE We have a serious gap in world-class leadership in both governments and corporates. With changing times, the old qualities of personal charisma, God-gifted stature, and the power to mobilize people and get things done still matter – but they are no longer enough. As...
Turkish-US Energy Partnership II
Published by Hurriyet Daily News | June/02/2014 MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ, PAUL MICHAEL WIHBEY For both Washington and Ankara, the stakes are high, possibly higher than many experts and officials in the two capitals realize. Not only is a new Eurasian economic partnership of significant proportions emerging to the north and east of Turkey’s borders, but the shift in...
The US-Turkish energy partnership in a changing world of energy and geopolitics
Published by HurriyetDaily News | May/31/2014 MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ – PAUL MICHAEL WIHBEY Energy and geopolitics, which cannot be treated in isolation from one another, today dominate both Turkish and American strategic thinking more than any time in the history of their bilateral relations. With the stroke of a pen that closed the historic $400 billion Russia-China gas supply...
Southeast Europe’s Energy: less confrontation, more collaboration
Hürriyet Daily News | 21 December-2013 – Mehmet Öğütçü – Dimitar Bechev One of the key strategic issues we discussed at the 12 December launch of The Bosphorus Energy Club at Sait Halim Pasha Yalisi was how the global game-changers in energy would affect the resource poor Southeast Europe, sandwiched between the major regions of the world. Southeast Europe or the Balkans has witnessed a centuries-old battleground...
Please less paranoia, more self-respect and confidence
Hürriyet Daily News | November/18/2013 MEHMET ÖGÜTÇÜ | Our minds are still obsessed with, and conditioned by, the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, and the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. True, they both sought to carve up the decaying Ottoman dominions. True, they both led to the disintegration of the 624-year long...
