The pumping of Russian gas to Turkey in August amounted to 1.37 billion cubic meters, which is only 6 percent less than a year ago.
This result allowed Gazprom to regain its status as a leader among suppliers to the Republic, Interfax reports, citing recent data from the Turkish Energy Market Regulation Council (EPDK).
The Russian monopoly was losing ground to its competitors for five months, and both gas pipelines, Blue Stream and Turkish Stream, were unloaded. Azerbaijan remained the leader from March to July.
The situation led to a significant reduction in Russian gas supplies to Turkey in the first eight months – 6.892 billion cubic meters compared to 10.623 billion a year ago. Ankara again needed purchases from Gazprom against the background of a general increase in gas imports. In the last month of summer, Turkey bought 3.354 billion cubic meters of gas, which is more than in July (3.11 billion) and August 2019 (3.148 billion). In September, the volumes increased further.
At the same time, the purchase of LNG by Turkish companies increased compared to July (591 and 508 million cubic meters after regasification), but turned out to be much lower than a year ago (801.42 million). Purchases from Azerbaijan in August fell to 986 million cubic meters. In July there were 1,093.83 million, and a year ago – 734.97 million.
Gazprom was expecting an increase in supplies to Turkey. Sergei Komlev, head of the contract structuring and pricing department at Gazprom Export, noted that the change in prices linked to oil prices in the third quarter will make Russian gas profitable for Turkey. Although he admitted that it might not be possible to make up for the failure of the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s dependence on gas imports may seriously decrease in the future. The country is preparing to start developing a field discovered in the Black Sea. In the long term, its operation will make it possible to abandon contracts with Russia.
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