Russia will reduce prices of natural gas sales to Turkey by 6.0% starting from
January 1, 2015, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said.
“And we will be
ready to reduce these prices further as we implement our major joint projects,”
Putin said in a press conference after his meeting with Turkey’s president
Erdogan, as quoted in a statement on the website of the Russian
presidency.
Turkey has submitted a counter bid requesting a larger
discount on natural gas supply prices from Russia. The bilateral talks regarding
prices continue, Turkey's energy minister Taner Yildiz said as quoted by local
news agency Anadolu Ajansi on Tuesday.
Putin also said during the press
conference that Russia has agreed to increase the capacity of the Blue Stream
natural gas pipeline transporting gas from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea
by 3.0 billion cubic metres. At present, the pipeline transports 16 billion cu m
of gas per year to Turkey.
Turkey is Gazprom's second largest sales
market after Germany. In 2013 Gazprom supplied Turkey with 26.7 billion cu m of
natural gas via the Trans-Balkan and the Blue Stream gas pipelines, according to
Gazprom.
During Putin’s visit to Turkey on Monday, Turkish state-owned
pipeline company Botas and Russia’s Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding
on the construction of a new subsea natural gas pipeline crossing the Black Sea
to Turkey with an annual natural gas transportation capacity of 63 billion cubic
metres and a gas hub near the Turkish border with Greece, Gazprom said on
Tuesday.