Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled on Monday that in the near future, Moscow and Ankara will complete negotiations on the creation of a gas hub in Turkiye to make the energy situation in the region more balanced. How are the gas hub talks going?
Russo-Turkish energy cooperation is proceeding, as Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined on September 4. Turkiye buys around 45% of its natural gas from Russia per annum via the Blue Stream and TurkStreampipelines across the Black Sea, and is continuing to implement the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project together with Moscow. Meanwhile, one project that has caught the world's attention is the Russo-Turkish gas hub, which, theoretically, may revive the fuel's flow to the EU.
What is the Russo-Turkish Gas Hub?
In the wake of the sabotage attack that destroyed Russia's Nord Streaminfrastructure delivering the nation's natural gas to the EU, President Putin came up with an initiative on October 12, 2022 to redirect the supplies intended for the damaged pipelines to Turkiye and provide the fuel to Europe via a new route, "if our partners are interested in this." The Russian president talked about potentially building additional Black Sea links toward Turkiye.
Ankara welcomed the proposal, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordering on October 14, 2022 his government to promptly start work on the gas hub plan. Turkiye has the capacity to become a major international energy hub, the Turkish leadership told the media later in the month.
Active negotiations on the hub project were suspended in March 2023 due to devastating earthquakes in southeastern Turkiye, but were very soon resumed.
The minister stated that Turkiye has the capacity to import up to 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 60% of which will be consumed domestically and 40% can be sold to neighboring countries.
The Russo-Turkish gas hub project has been met with criticism in Washington, which urged Ankara to reduce "energy dependence" on Russia instead of "increasing" it. Erdogan's main presidential rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu – who was seen favorably in the West at the time, particularly claimed in May that the idea of creating a gas hub in Turkiye is dangerous for Ankara and a threat to the country's energy independence. However, Erdogan won the race and the project kept going. Ankara signaled in late May that Turkiye plans to put the gas hub into operation by the end of 2023.
Why is the Russo-Turkish Gas Hub Important?
Per energy observers, the Russo-Turkish gas hub project came as a counter-balance to Washington's efforts to increase the Old Continent's dependence on US liquefied natural gas (LNG). The destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were designed to deliver 110 billion cubic meters to Europe annually, was attributed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh to the Biden administration and its Norwegian allies.
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