In a bid to reduce dependency on Russia, Turkmenistan’s gas will reach Europe via Turkey, based on an energy cooperation agreement.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul met with his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ankara last month. After the meeting, Gul told reporters Turkey will deliver Turkmen gas to European markets. He did not go into any details.
What is clear, however, is that Turkmen gas flowing through the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) will be a boon for Turkey, which currently relies on Russia for 60% of its natural gas. The TANAP pipeline is under construction and is scheduled to be operational by 2018.
With 32 trillion cubic metres of natural gas reserves (12% of the world’s natural gas), Turkmenistan is the fourth-largest natural gas producing country in the world.
Hasan Ozertem, an analyst with the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), told SESTürkiye that Turkey has been eager to access Turkmen gas for a long time. “The starting volume of Azerbaijani gas that will be flowing through TANAP will be 16 billion cubic metres annually in 2018. In 2026 the gas capacity is expected to hit 31 billion cubic metres. Now with the latest co-operation Turkey plans to fill the gap with the Turkmen gas,” he said.
Turkmenistan has the capacity to produce 80 billion cubic metres annually. Some analysts predict that it could take a piece of the energy puzzle away from Russia.
Taner Yildiz, Turkey’s natural gas and energy minister, commenting on co-operation with Turkmenistan, said Ankara will play an important role in carrying Caspian Sea energy resources to Europe through TANAP, including the potential addition of Turkmen gas.
“Turkey has an obligation to use its geographical advantages the right way,” Yildiz said. “The countries located on the east side of Turkey possess 65% of the world’s entire energy resources while the Western consumers constitute 65% of the world’s total consumption.”
Yildiz also said that the latest developments in Ukraine became a threat to the concept of unifying energy resources in the region. “We have been improving our efforts on that issue,” he said.
But Russia could stand in the way of Turkey’s deal with Turkmenistan in order to protect its hegemony in supplying energy to Europe.
“In order to deliver the Turkmen gas to Europe through TANAP, an underwater pipeline should be built below the Caspian sea,” Ozertem said. “I have doubts that Russia will allow the construction of such a pipeline.”
Speaking to SES Türkiye, Hanife Cetin, an expert on energy studies with TURKSAM, said the West has been pushing hard to break the dominance of Russian natural gas and have been trying to sanction Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine.
“We have been witnessing that Russia, in the pursuit of new markets and new vendors, headed toward the East. Moscow approached China and declared that it doesn’t lean on Western countries,” she said. “Russia was trying to accomplish the South Stream project with the European Union countries in Eastern Europe. However the European Union’s rejections have prevented the project from taking effect. In return, Russia has adopted a prepaid system for the natural gas it has been exporting to Ukraine, as a warning to both Ukraine and the European Union.”
As for Iran, Cetin said the country will use Turkey as a conduit to transfer its energy resources to Europe when sanctions are lifted. In the future, traffic will also include delivery of gas from Iraq, Israel and Cyprus. “Therefore, although Turkey couldn’t yet reach full capacity, in the near future its volume will grow significantly,” Cetin said.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/turkmenistan%E2%80%98s-gas-will-flow-europe-turkey