Erdogan: EU will be able to purchase Russian gas via Turkey

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 Oct 2022 22:22
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The idea of creating a gas hub was initially proposed by the Kremlin earlier this month but executive plans for its establishment are now starting to be implemented.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 2nd right and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, 2nd left, along with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, right and Bulgarias's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov left, symbolically open a valve during a ceremony in Istanbul for the inauguration of the TurkStream pipeline, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the establishment of a gas hub in which the EU wil be able to make purchases of Russian gas via Turkey.

"Europe is currently thinking about how to ensure energy supplies in the coming winter period. We, thank God, do not have such a problem. Moreover, at our last meeting with Putin, we agreed to create a gas hub in Turkey. As he announced, Europe can use Russian gas through Turkey," Erdogan said at a meeting of his party in the parliament.

The idea was initially proposed by the Kremlin earlier this month but executive plans for the establishment of a gas hub are now starting to be implemented.

After the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up in a sabotage operation, most parties have concluded, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed sending natural gas to southern Europe through Turkey.

Moscow already supplies Ankara with natural gas through the TurkStream link which passes through the Black Sea.

The pipeline starts on the Russian coast, runs over 930 km through the Black Sea and comes ashore in the Thrace region of Turkey.

It directly connects the largest gas reserves in Russia to the Turkish gas transportation network, providing reliable energy to Turkey, South and Southeast Europe.

On October 13, the Hungarian Foreign Minister announced that Russian gas supplies to Hungary will be rerouted from the Western route to the Southern route via the TurkStream gas pipeline.

"Today we have agreed that Russian gas that was initially went to Hungary through northern routes, will be redirected to the southern route, so in the near future Hungary will receive gas daily and we can be sure that there will be no restrictions for the use of natural gas in Hungary," he said.

Later that day, Russian authorities announced they have detained several saboteurs as they were trying to sabotage and blow up a part of the TurkStream pipeline that is on Russian territory.

#Hungary:

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban;

„We will “respond accordingly” if there is any attack on the pipeline, which carries gas from #Russia to #Turkiye and further to European countries, including Hungary.“ #TurkStream pic.twitter.com/8uJimDX6rr
— Aceu™ (@AceJaceu) October 15, 2022

Earlier today, South Stream Transport B.V., the operator of the TurkStream gas pipeline, announced that it received a notice on the extension of its export license from the Dutch government.

“On Monday, October 17, 2022, South Stream Transport B.V. received notification from the Dutch authorities about the renewal of the export license," the company said in a statement.

This happened despite that the EU imposeds sanctions earlier last month on the Turkish pipeline operator, which revoked the pipeline's operator of its export license.

However, South Stream Transport issued a statement saying gas transportation would continue uninterrupted.

"As a result of the introduction of new sanctions, on September 18, 2022, the export license of South Stream Transport B.V., the operator of the TurkStream offshore gas pipeline, through which Russian gas is transported through the Black Sea to consumers in Turkey and European countries, was prematurely revoked," the company said in a statement.

However, "The imposition of new sanctions does not preclude South Stream Transport B.V. from continuing to transport gas," it added.