Türkiye Russia’s most reliable gas partner: Putin

MOSCOW

Türkiye turned out to be Russia’s most reliable partner in the gas sector after Germany’s partial refusal to import Russian gas, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV channel’s Pavel Zarubin, published on the journalist’s Telegram channel, TASS reported on Feb. 18.

"Türkiye turned out the most reliable partner as [gas is supplied to Europe] via TurkStream," Putin said.

The Russian leader is expected to pay a visit to Türkiye to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the coming weeks.

Putin’s planned visit was initially scheduled for Feb. 12 and was postponed at the request of the Russian side due to the looming elections in both countries, the diplomatic sources said.

TurkStream starts on the Russian coast, runs over 930 kilometers through the Black Sea and comes ashore in the Thrace region of Türkiye.

TurkStream directly connects the largest gas reserves in Russia to the Turkish gas transportation network, providing energy to Türkiye, south and southeast Europe.

The offshore component of the system consists of two parallel lines running through the Black Sea. The pipelines enter the water on the Russian coast and come ashore on the Turkish coast in the Thrace region.

TurkStream is the first system using pipes with a diameter of 81 centimeters laid at depths exceeding 2 kilometers.

It has and 31.5 billion cubic meters annual transport capacity.

Türkiye imported 4.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas in November 2023, rising 7.5 percent from a year ago, according to the latest data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).

Russia was Türkiye’s largest supplier of natural gas in the month. It accounted for nearly 52 percent of the natural gas Türkiye imported in November. Azerbaijan and Iran ranked second and third, respectively.

The country’s natural gas exports in the first 11 months of last year declined 9 percent compared to the same period in 2022 to 44.4 billion cubic meters.