ANKARA, June 8Ankara and Moscow assessed the “road map” for the “gas hub” project proposed by Russia in Turkey and determined further steps towards this goal, the country’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar told Anadolu Agency.
«(Turkish) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have set a goal of creating a natural gas trading center in Turkey. We assessed the road map in terms of what we have done and what we will do in the future regarding this goal,” the Turkish state agency quoted Bayraktar as saying.
The idea of a Turkish gas hub was first discussed in October 2022. Then, two weeks after the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 underwater gas pipelines, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward the idea of moving the lost volume of Russian gas supplies to the Black Sea region. According to him, a gas hub could be created in Turkey, which would become a platform for exports to other countries, primarily to Europe, as well as for determining gas prices.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak reported in December 2023 that Gazprom and Turkey had agreed to prepare a roadmap for such a hub, and it would be adopted in the near future; the project could begin this year.