Turkey eyes gas price discount from Gazprom

MOSCOW – Anadolu Agency

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız attends the Turkey and Russia Joint Economic Commission with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak.

Turkey hopes to receive a discount on gas prices, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Nov. 26.

“We have presented our proposals to Gazprom about a potential discount for gas, and we hope that Gazprom will take our proposals into account,” he said after attending the Turkey and Russia Joint Economic Commission with his counterpart Alexander Novak.

Russia and Turkey have also been working out economic and technical conditions for increasing gas supplies via the Blue Stream, a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey.

“We assessed the potential increase in gas supplies from Russia to Turkey. Now Turkey’s state-run grid company BOTAŞ and Gazprom are negotiating technical conditions,” said Novak.

The Blue Stream gas pipeline, commissioned in December 2002, has a total length of 1,213 kilometers (754 miles). As of March 2014, the amount of gas supplied via Blue Stream since February 2003 totaled 100 billion cubic meters (bcm).