Turkish Stream Talks will Get Boost After Elections, Says Energy Minister
Turkey's Energy Minister Ali Riza Alaboyun has said that Turkish Stream negotiations will get a boost after the general elections on November 1st. Turkish Stream is the planned natural gas pipeline which will ship Russian gas under the Black Sea.
Turkey's AKP, the country's ruling party since 2003, lost its parliamentary majority after the June elections. Since then, coalition talks between AKP and CHP have not resulted in a coalition government, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for snap elections in Turkey.
At a press conference after the G20 Energy Ministers Meeting in Istanbul on October 2nd, Alaboyun said that both the Turkish and Russian sides may have enough common ground on Turkish Stream to start talks again. "It is not possible for us to lay out the basis of this agreement since it binds the government," he said.
LICENCES FOR 2 LINES
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday that Moscow will wait for the new government for the granting of construction licenses for two of the four-stages of Turkish Stream.
"The first phase's capacity of 15.75 BCm is for Turkish domestic consumption and the other phase is for South-Eastern Europe consumers," Novak said to journalists in the sidelines of G20 energy ministerial meeting. Turkey has thus far only awarded licenses for the first line.
PRICE DISCOUNT
In early September, Turkey's Energy Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Sefa Sadik Aytekin has sad that talks with Russia on Turkish Stream are frozen.
"The main reason for that is Russia's hardline attitude on natural gas price discount, which is the perquisite for Turkish Stream talks. When Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced the Turkish Stream pipeline project which will be built instead of South Stream to bypass Ukraine, he said that natural gas prices for Turkey can be discounted. In beginning of the official talks, the discount rate request for natural gas was 6% percent. After long discussions, we agreed with Gazprom on discount to Turkish companies by 10.25% but later the talks frozen without a solution," Aytekin said.
The Turkish Stream project was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Turkey last December, after the shelving of the South Stream project.
The proposed 63 BCM per year Turkish Stream project will replace Russia's long planned South Stream pipeline which had been planned to run across the Black Sea and through Bulgaria but was halted due to EU insistence that the line allow third-party access.
Turkey is due to receive 15.75 Bcm per year out of the total capacity of the Turkish Stream pipeline.
Murat Tinas in Istanbul