Turkey suggests alternative gas transit route to EU

Turkey can serve as a transit point for the supply of Russian gas to the European market, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday during a speech at the Baku Energy Forum.

“Turkey wants to use the entire infrastructure for domestic production in the context of domestic consumption and transportation of gas to foreign markets, including European ones, for existing suppliers through the pipelines of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran,” Bayraktar said.

According to him, Ankara could also help in the transit of resources from Turkmenistan, Iraq, and the Mediterranean.

Russia is one of the major gas suppliers to Turkey, accounting for about half of the country’s imports. Gazprom supplies the fuel via the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream pipelines.

The two-string offshore Turkish Stream pipeline was launched in 2020. It was built as an alternative to the South Stream pipeline (after Bulgaria ditched the project in 2014) and boasts a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters. One of the lines supplies Russian gas to Turkey, while the other serves the nations of southern and southeastern Europe.

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