Ankara, as part of the gas hub project proposed by Russia, will soon conduct a study of market participants and discuss mechanisms for attracting investments, a source in the administration of the Turkish leader said.
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“In the near future, a study of market participants for the gas center will be carried out. Issues of attracting investments, issues of supply and demand are also important here. For us, this project is a priority and real, there is a large market, external suppliers and transit potential. We will discuss the project with the Russian side at every stage,” the source said.
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People first started talking about a Turkish gas hub in October last year. Then – two weeks after the destruction of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the lost transit volume of Russian gas could be moved to the Black Sea region. He noted the opportunity to create a gas hub in Turkey, which could become a platform for supplies to other countries, primarily to Europe, as well as for determining gas prices.
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Putin, at a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi early last week, noted that Russia expects the negotiations on the creation of a gas hub to be completed soon. Later, a diplomatic source in Ankara said that work on the project will be intensified in the near future, and negotiations between working groups are possible.
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Russian gas is supplied to Turkey and in transit through Turkish territory to the countries of Southern and South-Eastern Europe via the Blue Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. The design capacity of the first is 16 billion cubic meters, the second – 31.5 billion cubic meters. Russia supplied Turkey with 21.5 billion cubic meters last year, and in January-August of this year – over ten billion, Putin reported at a press conference following Russian-Turkish negotiations.
