Erdogan Says Turkmenistan Could Soon Begin Gas Exports to Turkey and Europe

Turkmenistan could soon begin exporting natural gas to Turkey and then Europe via the expanded Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Tuesday.  

Turkmenistan, rich in natural gas, has been vying for an export route of its gas to Europe, after Russian pipeline flows to the EU slumped in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Turkmenistan has been negotiating gas exports to Turkey and global markets through swap deals, with a focus on electricity supply to Afghanistan.

In March this year, Turkmenistan and Turkey reached an agreement for the transportation of Turkmen natural gas through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, and subsequently to the European market, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

At a speech read out at an oil and gas industry event in Baku, Azerbaijan, Turkey’s president Erdogan said, as carried by Anadolu Agency,

“Our long-standing cooperation, crowned with infrastructure investments such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines, and TANAP, has not only benefited Türkiye and Azerbaijan but has also made significant contributions to the energy security of the region and Europe.”

The TANAP project is considered to be the most important section of the Gas Corridor linking to the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). TANAP can claim to be the longest natural gas pipeline and to have the largest diameter in Turkey, the Middle East, and Europe, and was built to transport natural gas extracted in Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Region first to Turkey and then to Europe.

Earlier this year, Turkey’s Energy Minister Bayraktar said that his country was set to receive up to 2 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas “in the initial stage” under the memorandum of understanding signed in March.

“Turkey is primarily interested in Turkmen gas because it has to diversify its sources of gas imports,” analysts at the Poland-based Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) said in March.  

“For Ankara this is particularly important as the ability to procure gas from various suppliers, coupled with reducing its own gas consumption, would bring the country closer to its goal of establishing a hub for trading this resource.”

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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