Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 29
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
The arbitration on the Ankara-Moscow case over the prices on Russian gas supplied to Turkey is not a crisis in bilateral relations, Ismail Alper Joshgun, Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, told Trend.
He said that earlier, the sides agreed that in case of disagreement on the price of Russian gas supplied to Turkey, the dispute will be resolved in the Court of Arbitration.
The diplomat said that Russia is an important supplier of gas to Turkey, but Turkey - an important energy market for Russia.
Earlier, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper said that Turkey appealed to the International Court of Arbitration Oct. 26 over the prices for Russian gas supplied to the country.
Turkey's submitting a claim to the International Court of Arbitration in Stockholm against Gazprom is not something unusual, the Russian company doesn't rule out an out-of-court settlement of the dispute, spokesman of Gazprom Sergei Kupriyanov said.
"Filing a claim to a court of arbitration is one of options provided for by the contract," he said. "This is normal. The possibility of both an out-of-court settlement of the dispute and decision by a court of arbitration remains."
BOTAS expected in March 2015 that Russia would make a 15-percent discount for the gas supplied to Turkey. However, Gazprom agreed to make a discount only for private Turkish companies, which account for over one third of imported Russian gas.
Around 25 percent discount was made for gas to Turkey's private sector in the first quarter and an additional 15 percent discount in the second quarter of 2015.
Turkey's private companies have been paying $390 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas since January 2015, according to Turkish media.
BOTAS refused from Russia's gas offer on March 18 since it demanded additional concessions from Turkey on construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline.
Currently, Turkey imports gas from Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan. Moreover, the country has signed agreements with Algeria and Nigeria for supplying 4.4 billion and 1.2 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas per year, respectively.
Edited by CN
follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
