Putin’s gas hub collapsed! Turkey replaces Russian gas with US LNG

Turkey plans to build a “portfolio of new supplies” to reduce dependence on any one supplier, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the Financial Times. To this end, he said, the country is negotiating with the American ExxonMobil to conclude a long-term contract (possibly for a decade), under which it will purchase up to 2.5 million tons of LNG (3.5 billion meters cubic) per year. Such a volume at current prices is worth $1.1 billion, although talks on the terms of the contract continue, Bayraktar said.

According to Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority, in 2022, Russia’s share in Turkey’s gas imports, which purchases almost all of its gas from abroad, will reach 40%, and the US share, which has increased in recent years, will exceed 10 %.

The 2.5 million tonnes equates to about 7% of last year’s demand, according to FT calculations. Turkey has purchased 5 million tons from the United States in 2023 on the spot market, Bayraktar said.

ExxonMobil, according to the FT, is in preliminary talks with Turkey, but declined to provide details. The company plans to increase LNG supplies to 40 million tonnes by 2030, almost double the 2020 level.

Turkey is trying to diversify purchases before some of its long-term contracts with Russia expire in 2025 and with Iran in 2026, Bayraktar said. Overall, LNG purchases accounted for about 35% of imports last year, compared to 15% in 2014.

After being re-elected in the 2023 presidential election, Recep Tayyip Erdogan began improving relations with the United States. Thus, Ankara lifted its veto on Sweden’s entry into NATO, and Washington agreed to sell it F-16 fighter jets worth billions of dollars.

After cutting off gas to Europe as punishment for support for Ukraine in 2022, Putin in October of that year proposed the idea of ​​creating a hub in Turkey where lost supplies from Nord Stream could be redirected. “Everyone is interested in this – our Turkish friends, we are interested and everyone who wants to purchase our resources on the European continent,” he said a year later, talking about the possibility of creating an electronic platform in Turkey for gas trading natural. the European continent.

Since then, there has been no significant progress in implementing this idea. The European Union has set itself the goal of completely stopping the purchase of Russian gas by 2027.

For more news follow us on TELEGRAM!