Transneft, a Russian state-owned business responsible for the national oil pipelines, is dissatisfied with negotiations with Turkey for the Samsun–Ceyhan pipeline project.

Nikolay Tokarev, Transneft President, told journalists that the Turkish side is trying to gain unilateral advantage and offering Russia unfavorable terms under the project, RIA Novosti reports. “Turkey proposes signing an intergovernmental agreement whereby they are trying to set unacceptable economic terms to us. We are not going to agree. To tell the truth, it is bothering – we are not used to such a manner of the talks,” Tokarev said.

Samsun–Ceyhan pipeline is a planned crude oil pipeline in Turkey from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean oil terminal in Ceyhan. The aim of this project is to provide an alternative route for Russia's and Kazakhstan's oil and to ease the traffic burden in the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

Turkey and Azerbaijan had a conflict over the transit and sale of Azerbaijani gas. As a result, the signing of a Turkish-Azeri agreement has been put off for an uncertain period. The amount of gas Turkey plans to purchase from Azerbaijan and the price for transit of Azeri gas through Georgia are a stumbling block in the Baku-Ankara negotiations. The Turkey-offered price is unacceptable to the Russian company. This is the reason why the Russian company and the Ministry of Energy are considering the possibility of transiting Azeri gas through the Black Sea, with Turkey not to be involved as a transit country.