Attracting Russian Investment to Establish a Gas Hub in Ankara

A member of the Council for Security and Foreign Policy under the President of Turkey, Chagri Erhan, said that Ankara will need Russian investment to build a gas center.

At the end of January last year, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Fatih Donmez, announced that an international meeting of gas consuming and supplying countries would be held at the Gas Center from February 14 to 15. After the February 6 earthquake, the meeting was temporarily postponed to March 22.

Active negotiations on the project were suspended after the devastating earthquake in the south-east of Turkey, and, according to RIA Novosti sources, negotiations will resume in the near future.

“Negotiations on the center have been suspended, as much has changed in Turkey after the earthquakes. All priorities have changed. In principle, yes (Turkey benefits from the center), but now we have no money to build it. If Russia has money, please,” Erhan said. They started building the center, it all depends on their investment.”

The first talk about the Turkish gas center was in October last year, then two weeks after the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the missing volume of Russian gas transit could be transferred to the Black Sea region.

He referred to the possibility of creating a gas hub in Turkey, which could become a platform for supplies to other countries, especially Europe, as well as set gas prices, which have increased several times since 2021, to historical levels.

Turkey reacted positively to the proposal to establish a gas center, and the leaders of the two countries instructed the relevant departments to start work. However, Europe accepted this proposal without enthusiasm.

Western media reported that building an infrastructure that would allow more Russian gas to be imported “doesn’t make sense” and the European Commission has indicated that the EU is keen to reduce dependence on Russian gas faster.

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed out, the gas center may be located in the Thrace region in the European part of the country.

According to Turkish researchers, gas from there can be sent through three pipelines: the southern gas pipeline will go to Italy, the middle gas pipeline to Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and other countries, and the northern gas pipeline to Romania, Slovenia. , Hungary, and then to Germany.

Source: News

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