Hurriyet Daily reported that Turkey’s top energy official urges Gazprom to cut prices saying that Ankara will not renew its contract with the Russian energy giant if its demand is not met. Gazprom’s response hints at a protracted conflict.

Mr Taner Yıldız energy minister of Turkey said that should Russia not fulfill Turkey’s demand for a price cut, the country will not renew its contract with the state run Gazprom to buy natural gas via the Western Pipeline. If Russia does not respond to our demand sufficiently we will take the initiative to put an end to the contract.

However, Gazprom was swift to respond the minister’s marks. The company’s exports department said in a written statement that the talks on supplying natural gas to Turkey are continuing with the state owned Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation not the Energy Ministry.

Gazprom exports received no information about protracting the deal from its Turkish partner BOTAŞ, The contract was signed by BOTAŞ, not the ministry.

The 25 year old contract between the parties covers the transfer of 6 billion cubic meters of gas via the Western Pipeline, one of the two lines that carry Russian gas to Turkey. Gazprom’s other Turkish contract expires in 2022. In addition to the western onshore route, it supplies gas via the Blue Stream pipeline built across the Black Sea.

Mr Yıldız said that Gazprom supplies about 18 billion cubic meters a year of gas to Turkey, its third biggest export market after Ukraine and Germany. The raw natural gas prices have increased by nearly 39% in the last 29 months. This is why we will revise all the inputs. We will revise all the expiring contracts, indeed and the Western Line is included.

(Sourced from www.hurriyetdailynews.com)