Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 19
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
No matter how often the officials of Turkey and Iran state that there are no problems between the countries, it is obvious that along with their political differences, Ankara and Tehran have also differences in establishing the price for Iranian gas being supplied to Turkey.
As for the political differences, these are mainly connected with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni crises.
Ankara has repeatedly told Tehran that the price of Iranian gas is unsuitable. As a result, Ankara appealed to the International Court of Arbitration in March 2012 regarding the price on "blue fuel" supplied from Iran.
In its turn, Iran said that it is willing to consider this issue only if Turkey doubles the volumes of gas supplies. But while awaiting the decision of the court, Ankara refuses the offer.
According to the Turkish media, Turkey buys Iranian gas at $490 per 1,000 cubic meters. The country pays $ 335 per 1,000 cubic meters for Azerbaijani gas, which is supplied via the South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum). Russian gas costs Turkey $ 425 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Turkey has contracts with Iran for the supply of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with Russia - 20 billion cubic meters of gas, Azerbaijan - 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas. And, Turkey signed agreements with Algeria and Nigeria for the supply of 4.4 billion and 1.2 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas per year, respectively.
Turkey buys 95 percent of Iranian gas, while Armenia buys 5 percent. The share of Iranian gas in Turkey is 20 percent.
Ankara hopes that the court of arbitration will make a decision on the price of Iranian gas supplied sometime in May 2015. But this does not mean that the decision will favor Turkey. And, if the decision of the arbitration court is against Turkey, Ankara might refuse the "take or pay" principle in gas supplies from Iran.
Ankara will abandon the "take or pay" principle in the gas relations with Iran in late 2015, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said.
He also said that Turkey completely abandoned the "take or pay" principle in gas supplies from Russia in 2014.
In case Ankara's refuses the "take or pay" principle with Iran, Turkey will also reduce the Iranian gas supplies, by increasing Russian gas supplies.
But all this will last only until 2018 when Turkey begins to receive Azerbaijani gas via the Trans- Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP). TANAP's initial capacity will be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. About six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe. With this in mind, one can safely say that TANAP will not only ensure energy security of Europe but will also partially weaken Turkey's dependence on Iranian gas.
Edited by CN
Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu