Baku, Azerbaijan, May 29
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
The project of Russian gas supplies via the Turkish Stream, which Gazprom seeks to impose on Europe, is daily facing new obstacles, including ones in Turkey.
One of the obstacles is the fact that despite the announcement about the start of implementation of this project by the Russian side, Turkey does not have any commitments on the construction of the Turkish Stream.
The Ambassador of Turkey in Russia, Umit Yardim confirmed that Ankara has no obligations to Moscow on the construction of the Turkish Stream. He said that Russia and Turkey have not signed any agreement regarding this project.
Besides there are many other obstacles in the way of implementation of the Turkish Stream.
Even in case of construction of this pipeline to Turkey, the Turkish Stream has no prospects beyond this country. The reason is that there are no buyers of gas planned to be supplied via this pipeline.
Moreover, there are many problems that Gazprom is not going to resolve quickly.
It turns out that Gazprom has not even appealed to Turkish authorities for permission to build the Turkish Stream.
Gazprom still needs to obtain permission from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey. Neither sale of oil and gas on the territory of Turkey nor transportation of hydrocarbons through its territory is possible without its license.
And, the ministry has not received any requests from Gazprom regarding the assessment of the impact of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline construction on the environment, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning told Trend.
It is impossible to implement any project in Turkey without this assessment.
So a simple question arises: Is it possible that such a serious corporation as Gazprom is unaware that the permission of at least two official instances of Turkey is necessary for construction of the Turkish Stream or for implementation of any energy project in this country? Of course not. Then why hasn't Gazprom taken these steps to date?
There is a simple answer: Russia has taken a wait-and-see position, since Turkey will hold parliamentary election on June 7 and it is too early to talk about its results.
Even if the ruling Justice and Development Party wins, a new government will be formed in the country.
The new cabinet of ministers will no longer have the key figures from the current government, as well as the country's energy and natural resources minister, Taner Yildiz, whom Russia had to face on the issue of realization of a number of energy projects. According to the charter of the Turkish ruling party, one person can not be represented in the Cabinet more than three times.
If the majority in Turkey's new government is composed of representatives of other political forces, Russia will have to hold negotiations again.
Some 20 political parties are to take part in the current parliamentary election in Turkey.
And this is why Gazprom lingers...
Edited by CN
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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
