Russia's Blue Stream gas pipeline to Turkey idle since May: sources

[Faheka]

MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) - The Blue Stream pipeline delivering Russian gas to Turkey, due to be re-launched after maintenance in May, remains idle, three sources told Reuters on Friday, as Ankara is increasing purchases of super-cooled gas to replace supplies from Gazprom.

Relations between Russia and Turkey, one of Moscow’s biggest consumers of natural gas, have been patchy for the past years and are beset by the numbers of issues, including conflicts in Syria and Libya as well as status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.

Since prices for Gazprom’s gas are several times higher than for liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to analysts, imports are booming from the United States and through a pipeline from Azerbaijan.

Turkish energy company Botas said in May that it would carry out maintenance on Blue Stream from May 13-29, but the pipeline’s re-launch has no clear date, a Turkish gas source and two Russian energy sources said.

“There is no point in using both pipelines if only one (TurkStream) is more than enough,” a Russian source said. TurkStream is currently running one of its two lines with 15.75 bcm in annual capacity.


Gazprom declined a to respond when asked when Blue Stream is set to be re-launched. “Gas supplies to Turkey are carried out in line with requests from the importing companies. Contracts are signed under the ‘take or pay’ principle,” it said.

It declined to say whether Botas would face fines due to the pipeline’s suspension and lack of offloads by the Turkish company. Botas and the Turkish Energy Ministry did not reply to requests for comment.


The Blue Stream pipeline, launched in early 2000s, moved 11.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Turkey last year out of a total 15.5 bcm exported.

While reducing Russian pipeline gas imports, Turkey plans to buy at least one third of its needs this year in the form of LNG, with cargoes coming from the United States, Nigeria, Algeria, Qatar and also Russia.

Russia was Turkey’s top gas supplier in March last year but as its sales dropped as much as 72% it now ranks as the fourth-biggest supplier, according to Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...o-turkey-idle-since-may-sources-idUSKBN24B1RI

 

[what]

> Contracts are signed under the ‘take or pay’ principle,” it said.

Thats all you need to know, the volumes will have to be paid eventually. Gas is just cheaper elsewhere (LNG) and the agreement with Gazprom is way more expensive.

 

[dBSPL]

Until 2010, the agreement with Russia had an item that Unit price could not fall below $ 70. The first version of the deal was far more ridiculous, thanks to Mesut Yılmaz. As far as I know, the quota level is around 6 billion cubic meters, the private sector can fill this out in the second half of the year. There was a similar situation last year.

Buy or pay agreement with Russia ends in 2021. After that, the agreement with Iran ends in a few years.

The LNG market has been expanding rapidly in recent years. SOCAR's related investments also increase diversity. Cheap gas enters the market. For this reason, the priorities of the private sector are also changing. In the coming years, the importance of Iraq, Qatar, Azerbaijan, USA, Turkmenistan and Algeria will increase significantly in the Turkey's energy market.

 

[MMM-E]

in 2018 the LNG held a 19.5% portion as Turkiye's imported 55.25 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
and Turkey imported 45.21 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2019 with LNG marking a 29% share


Russia is working with Israel,S.Arabia and The Uae against Turkiye , also Russia and Iran were become hostile to Turkiye in Syria

Turkiye focus on more LNG import from Qatar , Algeria and The US ... instead of dependent on Russia and Iran

even new floating LNG storage facility to be built in western Turkey’s Izmir

also Azerbaijani energy giant SOCAR invested over $20 billion in Turkiye including TANAP gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Italy via Turkiye