Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
In 2014-2015, Turkey will pay off its debt to Azerbaijan for gas upon a contract signed on a "take or pay" principle, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said on Friday, Anadolu agency reported.
According to him, the country is also expected to pay off its debt to Iran.
"Turkey currently does not have any debts to Russia for gas," the minister added.
Yildiz said earlier, that Turkey has fulfilled all its obligations under the gas agreements signed upon "take or pay" principle.
Earlier, the Turkish state pipeline company Botas announced about paying 186 million lira to Azerbaijan within the commitments on gas agreements signed on "take or pay" principle in September 2012.
Turkey intends to abandon the "take or pay" principle in the gas contracts with Azerbaijan and Iran by late 2013.
Botas also paid Russia 1.4 billion lira for unpicked gas and 1.3 billion lira to Iran.
In 1996, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement to supply 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually (30 million cubic meters daily).
Today, Turkey receives gas from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz via the South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum). According to the contract, Turkey must receive 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas within the first stage of field development. Turkey will receive six more billion cubic meters of gas from the second stage.
The official exchange rate is 2.0442 TRY/USD on Nov. 15.