Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Ankara on Friday, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız said the government has recently put their request to Russia and Iran and is expecting answers shortly. Talks concerning the issue are continuing between the parties and Yıldız told reporters that the government expected to yield as favorable an outcome as possible from the talks.
As stated in the natural gas purchase contract between Turkey and Iran, Turkey has to buy at least 6.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Iran annually. This means Turkey has to pay Iran a specified amount of money irrespective of whether it needs that amount of natural gas. A similar situation exists for the supply of natural gas from Russia. Turkey has to buy at least 75 percent of the gas as defined in the contract annually. Turkey’s natural gas consumption has dropped noticeably in the past few months. This contraction followed hikes in gas prices during 2009. The government, therefore, does not take kindly to paying money for unused gas. Turkey paid Iran $704 million for natural gas it failed to use from the country in 2008. Any unused gas can be supplied within the following five years under the terms of the contract but observers argue that Turkey will most likely request that Iran extends this term.
On the Russian side, things are a bit more complex. As the consumption of natural gas has also contracted in Europe recently, some EU countries have already asked Russia, the biggest natural gas supplier in the continent, to revise the “take or pay” condition stipulated in the gas purchase contracts. Turkey has also, reportedly, asked Russia to reduce the minimum limit for its annual gas purchase.
