Starting July 1, Turkey will raise the fee for vessels transiting the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits by 15%, setting the new rate at $5.83 per net ton of ship displacement. As reported by the Oil and Gas of Kazakhstan Telegram channel and cited by Forbes.kz, this increase will directly affect the cost of transporting Kazakh oil exported via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Marine Terminal - which handles over 80% of Kazakhstan’s total oil exports, Forbes.kz reports.
This will be the fourth price hike since 2022, when Turkey began recalibrating its strait transit tariffs. Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu explained that the increases are linked to the rising value of gold. Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, which regulates navigation through the straits, transit fees are based on the value of the “gold franc.”
“The gold franc rate was fixed at $0.80 for 39 years, until 2022. Since then, we’ve been gradually adjusting it. With this year's increase, fees are now 7.2 times higher than they were before 2022,” Uraloğlu stated.
He added that revenue generated from these fees will be used to finance coast guard operations, search and rescue services, and medical support in the straits. According to Turkish authorities, revising the fees helps the country more accurately reflect the geostrategic importance of the Bosporus and Dardanelles and the rising costs of ensuring their safe management.
The Bosporus and Dardanelles are critical chokepoints in global trade, linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Vessels travel through the Bosporus—which runs through Istanbul - to the Sea of Marmara, and then exit to the Mediterranean via the Dardanelles.
More than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports are loaded onto tankers at the CPC Marine Terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereevka, located on Russia’s Black Sea coast.
Italy is one of the main European countries receiving oil from Kazakhstan via the CPC. In particular, oil unloaded at the CPC marine terminal in most cases reaches the port of Trieste in northeastern Italy. From there, the crude is transported to refineries in other European countries, including Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
CentralasianLIGHT.org,
June 30, 2025