ISTANBUL (Agencies): Turkiye hopes to launch an international gas hub in 2025 in cooperation with Russia’s Gazprom, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Friday.
“We have created a strong infrastructure to launch operation of a trading platform within the Istanbul Financial Center in 2025 under the Botas–Gazprom partnership,” Bayraktar told Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
The minister said that gas prices would be determined under the Istanbul gas index.
Turkiye also hopes to get a discount, which means Turkiye will get a special price when the existing contract terminates in 2025, the minister added. In his opinion, even if Ukraine does not extend the contract on Russian gas transit, there will be no problems with the security of supplies, but there could be an increase in gas prices.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia’s Kazan that both countries are continuing to work on the creation of a gas hub, and that Russia remains a reliable supplier of gas to Turkiye.
Turkiye expects that a gas hub will help it become a strategic center for gas pricing in the region and also increase gas imports from 50 billion cubic meters to 70-80 billion cubic meters.
The gas hub was first discussed in October 2022. At the time, Putin suggested redirecting gas transit from the blast-damaged Nord Stream pipelines to Turkiye. In July, Bayraktar said that Turkiye was close to realizing the gas hub project and had the necessary infrastructure in place.