"Exporting Turkmen Gas to Turkey and Europe via the Expanded Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) is Just a Matter of Time," announced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week, Anadolu Agency reports.
The comment by the Turkish president was read at the Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition, recently held in Baku.
On June 4, the Turkish company Botas Petroleum Pipeline and Azerbaijan's Socar also signed contracts aimed at advancing the intergovernmental agreement reached in May, calling for cooperation on natural gas issues. This was reported by Upstream.
One of the five signed contracts stipulates that Botas and Socar should jointly organize the supply of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, and then through Turkey to other countries.
Regarding the route of gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, the media reports two options: the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah writes that the plan involves gas transportation by sea (presumably via gas tankers), while the Upstream website, citing experts, states that Socar will start negotiations with Turkmenistan to resume gas deliveries through a swap scheme via Iran. It is worth noting that these options are not mutually exclusive.
From 2022 to 2024, Turkmenistan exported gas to Azerbaijan through swap operations via Iran. However, in January 2024, exports were suspended as Ashgabat and Baku failed to agree on the volumes and price of gas. Since then, neither side has reported on the resumption of deliveries. Some experts believe that Azerbaijan re-exported Turkmen gas to Europe, blending it with its own, and the reason for stopping purchases was the decrease in gas prices in the European market, which made its resale unprofitable for Baku.
It is known that the export of Turkmen gas to Turkey was one of the main topics of negotiations between the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held in March 2024.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
June 7, 2024