Turkish Stream shouldn’t affect Turkey’s commitment to TANAP

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.11

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

No developments regarding the Turkish Stream project should affect Turkey's commitment to TANAP and TAP to move Shah Deniz 2 gas to European markets, Edward Chow, a senior fellow in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Trend Oct.11.

Chow was commenting on the agreement signed Oct.10 between Russia and Turkey on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.

“They also agreed to the same in December 2014. Without the details, it is difficult to know whether this new agreement, signed at the ministerial level, is more solid,” he added.

Even before yesterday, Alexei Miller, CEO of Russia’s Gazprom company, stated that this is no longer a 4-line system, but a two-line project, said Chow.

“One line, replacing Turkey’s imports of Russian gas from the Balkan route, is easy enough, since the pipe was long purchased (for South Stream) and sits in Bulgaria,” he said. “A second line is more difficult to execute without European buyers’ commitment to accept gas at the Greek-Turkish border and additional pipeline connections to take that gas to market.”

What is important to Azerbaijan is that none of this should affect Turkey's commitment to TANAP and TAP to move Shah Deniz 2 gas to European markets, according to the analyst.

Commenting on the possible rivalry between Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2 projects, Chow said he sees no connection between Nord Stream 2, which is designed to take Russian gas to markets in central and western Europe, and Turkish Stream, which seeks to take gas to southeastern Europe, except that they both strain Gazprom's capacity at a time of low gas prices and capital constraints.

Turkish Stream project, which involves the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea, was frozen after the relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated in November 2015. In August 2016, the presidents of two countries Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to resume the implementation of the Turkish Stream project.