Baku, Azerbaijan, March 18
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkish BOTAS company has announced the reason for Turkey's turning down Russia's proposal on discount for the gas supplied to Turkey.
The reason is that the Russian side demanded additional concessions from Turkey on construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline, BOTAS company told Trend on Mar.18.
However, the company didn't specify which kind of concession it is, but added that it wasn't previously stipulated within the negotiations on the construction of the Turkish Stream.
The sides are expected to resume the talks on offering discount for gas supplied to Turkey.
Turkish BOTAS company declined to sign an agreement with Russia's Gazprom on Mar.17 on a 10.25-percent discount on the Russian gas supplied to Turkey. The refusal to sign the agreement came due to that the discount rate proposed by Russia doesn't suit Turkey.
Turkey is expected to appeal to the arbitration court with regard to the discount for the supplied Russian gas.
Russia is the main supplier of natural gas to Turkey. Around 26.7 billion cubic meters of gas was supplied to Turkey from Russia in 2014, and it is planned to increase this figure to 30 billion cubic meters in 2015.
Gas prices are not officially disclosed, but Turkey buys Russian gas at $425 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to Turkish media. Turkey pays $335 for one thousand cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas which is supplied via the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline). The country pays $490 for 1,000 cubic meters of Iranian gas.
Turkey has contracts with Russia to supply 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with Iran it is 10 billion cubic meters of gas and with Azerbaijan - 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas.
Edited by SI
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