Erdogan urged to start work on gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Europe

It is necessary to launch an initiative to organize the supply of gas from Turkmenistan to Western markets, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. transmits Anadolu.

“We need to start working on transporting Turkmen natural gas to Western markets,” he said.

He stated this at the summit of the heads of state of Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan in Turkmenistan.

The fact that Erdogan intends to return to the idea of ​​​​supplying Turkmen gas through Turkey to Europe, last week figured out Bloomberg. According to Turkish officials, the gas is transported by tankers from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, where it will then be pumped into the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline chain connecting Azerbaijan to Europe via Georgia and Turkey.

Discussions of gas supplies from Turkmenistan bypassing Russia have been held before, but their intensification is now directly related to the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the agency claims. Implementation of such an initiative could take years.

Currently, Azerbaijan’s export supplies to Turkey are carried out through Georgia via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) with a design capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. m per year, and, according to Bloomberg, a decision has already been made to double it to 32 billion cubic meters. m per year. Baku delivers to the EU through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), launched in early 2021, with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters. m.

In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with the idea of ​​creating a hub in Turkey for the supply of Russian gas. He noted that the falling volumes of gas transportation to the EU (due to damage to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines and sanctions against the latter. – Vedomosti) could be transferred from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. In this case, according to Putin, Turkey can become the largest gas hub. Later, Erdogan said that he had agreed with Putin on the creation of an international gas hub in the country.

Europe has accelerated the process of diversifying gas suppliers after the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, which began on February 24. The European Commission (EC) has developed a plan that provides for a complete renunciation of the consumption of Russian fuel until 2030, called REPowerEU. According to him, the EU countries should reduce the purchase of Russian gas by three times by the current end of the year.