Construction of a gas pipeline from Russian Federation to Turkey could be delayed if an initial agreement is not signed soon, says Russia’s energy minister.
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According to official sources who spoke to Anadolu Agency, the main issue between the two countries is Russia refusal to provide discounts on Russian gas supplies to Turkey.
Ankara said in February it obtained the discount on 28-30 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas it buys from Russian Federation and that it should have been enacted as of January 2015.
The deputy head of Russia’s Gazprom Company, Alexander Medvedev, earlier said that the deal was scheduled to be finalized before the end of this month, along with an intergovernmental agreement on the implementation of the TurkStream project, Sputnik reports. Turkey has so far only given licenses for the first line.
Talks between the Moscow and Ankara administrations are suspended after Russian authorities failed to sign off on a proposed gas price agreement with Turkish counterparts, Reuters reported, citing unidentified Turkish officials.
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Russia’s Gazprom is yet to start laying pipes beneath the Black Sea for the first line of the TurkStream pipeline, which was expected to start operations by 2017 and bring 15.75 billion m/yr to Turkey.
