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Ankara: time to say goodbye to ‘Turkish Stream’

Oil&Gas Materials 30 July 2015 21:16 (UTC +04:00)
Today, Turkey completely froze the ‘Turkish stream’ project.
Ankara: time to say goodbye to ‘Turkish Stream’

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 30

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Today, Turkey completely froze the 'Turkish Stream' project. The reason for this decision is that Ankara and Moscow can't reach a final agreement.

The main reason for freezing the 'Turkish Stream' is the changeable stance of Russia on Turkey, which led Ankara to refuse to provide transit for Russian gas.

Aside from that, the energy and natural resources minister of Turkey, Taner Yildiz earlier said Moscow and Ankara discussed the creation of a joint gas distribution network.

He said preliminary agreements were reached in this regard, but, unfortunately, Russia changed its stance.

"Additional time is needed for this project to be realized," said Yildiz.

In fact, this statement by the Turkish minister could be considered serious and definitive signal to Russia.

The second reason for freezing the 'Turkish Stream' is that until now Russia's Gazprom hasn't provided a discount for gas delivered from Russia to Turkey.

Turkey's Botas was expecting that Russia would set an acceptable discount of 15 percent on its gas. But Gazprom agreed to provide a discount only to private Turkish companies, which account for over a third of Russian gas imports.

And currently, the private sector in Turkey is already enjoying the discount on Russian gas.

At the moment, Ankara and Moscow have no commitments to build the 'Turkish Stream', which also is confirmed by the authorities of Turkey.

Also, Gazprom has no license from Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK). Without the EPDK's license it isn't possible to sell oil and gas in Turkey, nor is it possible to transport hydrocarbons through its territory.

And most importantly, Turkey's Environment and Urban Planning Ministry previously told Trend that no appeals were received from Gazprom on assessment of environmental impact from the 'Turkish Stream' gas pipeline's construction.

All this gives grounds to say that Russia has spent a huge amount of money on a project that is not needed in Europe.

Pipes, worth two billion euros, have been ordered and partially shipped for the construction of the 'Turkish Stream'.

No matter what hopes Gazprom has on this project, Ankara has already said goodbye to the 'Turkish Stream'.

Edited by CN

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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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