Turkey commented on the negotiations with Russia on the gas hub project

By Rhod Mackenzie

There are no problematic issues in the negotiation process on the gas hub project in Turkey with the Russian side, at this stage Ankara is only studying the market, the parties are aiming at active work, a source in the Turkish energy sector involved in the development of the project told RIA Novosti, commenting on media reports that the project is allegedly being postponed.

A Russian proposal to create a gas hub in Turkey to replace lost sales to Europe is reportedly being delayed because of disagreements over who should run it, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the project.

"This is stupid, there's nothing to comment on. What kind of disagreements (on management) can we talk about when we are just studying the market, studying its financial side, the issue of supply and demand. Working groups have been set up on behalf of the heads of state, active work is going on, on the contrary, now the focus is only on active implementation of the project. This is fiction," the source said.
Turkey is studying supply and demand in the market within the framework of the gas hub project proposed by Russia, is aimed at the European market, there is a specific instruction from the country's President Tayyip Erdogan to consider the Gazprom project and prepare proposals for subsequent discussions at the highest level, a source in the Turkish administration previously told RIA Novosti.

The talk of a Turkish gas hub began in October last year. Then, two weeks after the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the lost transit volume of Russian gas could be transferred to the Black Sea region. He mentioned the possibility of creating a gas hub in Turkey, which could become a platform for supplying other countries, especially Europe, and for setting gas prices.

At a meeting with Erdogan in Sochi in early September, Putin noted that Russia expected negotiations on the creation of a gas hub to be concluded soon. Later, a diplomatic source in Ankara told RIA Novosti that work on the project will be intensified in the near future and negotiations between working groups are possible.

The Blue Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines deliver Russian gas to Turkey and, via Turkish territory, to the countries of southern and south-eastern Europe. The design capacity of the former is 16 billion cubic metres, while that of the latter is 31.5 billion cubic metres. Russia delivered 21.5 billion cubic metres to Turkey last year, and more than ten billion cubic metres in January-August this year, Putin said at a press conference after the Russian-Turkish negotiations.