Gazprom Mulls Contracts with Turkish Private Firms after Botas Ends Gas Deal

A general view during the annual meeting of Gazprom shareholders in Moscow, Russia, 30 June 2011. Photo by BGNES

Russia's Gazprom has said it is ready to supply gas to private Turkish companies if Turkey's state gas pipeline operator Botas terminates its gas supply contract with the Russian gas exporter.

"We see that the gas supplied via the western corridor finds demand among commercial and industrial consumers," Gazprom's export head Alexander Medvedev told journalists Monday, as cited by RIA Novosti.

On September 30, Botas informed Gazprom of its decision to end a contract to buy 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually from Russia after a pricing disagreement.

The Turkish gas distributor was said to have demanded a 20 percent discount to extend a 25-year old deal with the Russian energy giant.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Saturday that if the gas deal to supply gas through the western corridor were not extended, the Turkish authorities would let private companies tender for the gas.

Russia supplies gas to Turkey, Moscow's second largest energy importer, through the so-called western corridor via Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, and directly via the Blue Stream pipeline in the Black Sea.

In 2010, it supplied 18 billion cubic meters to Ankara, about 60 percent of Turkey's total domestic gas consumption.

The dispute with Turkey follows the European Commission's raids on Gazprom's facilities in Europe on suspicion of beraches of EU anti-monopoly legislation.

Earlier Monday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller confirmed the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the South Stream gas pipeline project would be completed by December 15, 2015 and that the first stretch of the Nord Stream pipeline would be put into operation on November 08.