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Turkey Extends Gazprom Deal as It Accelerates LNG Pivot
Turkey has extended two natural gas supply contracts with Gazprom by a year, set to receive 22 billion cu m until the end of 2026, Ankara’s energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said, as quoted by Reuters, today.
Despite the extension, Turkey has been reducing the share of Russian gas in its gas consumption, and this share now represents less than 40% of the total. Meanwhile, the government is considering investments in U.S. gas to diversify its supply base. Liquefied natural gas is also in the mix, with Ankara recently inking several contracts for long-term supply, the bulk from the United States as well.
The investments will focus on LNG exporting facilities as Ankara seeks to hedge its pledge to purchase 1,500 cargos of U.S. liquefied gas over the next 15 years, Bayraktar also said. “To hedge our position and create the whole value chain, we are considering to invest in the upstream in the U.S. market,” the official said. Negotiations with U.S. LNG producers include Chevron, he also said.
The United States is currently Turkey’s fourth-largest gas supplier, delivering 5.5 billion cu m this year, for a market share of 14%. Turkey is currently working to boost its LNG import capacity in line with its plans to become a regional gas hub. To that end, two more floating regasification units are set to be installed at Turkish ports in the coming years, adding to three existing floating terminals and two onshore facilities to regasify LNG, with a capacity of 50 billion cu m annually, Reuters noted in its report.
In pipeline gas, Turkey is in talks to extend a supply deal with Iran that expires in July 2026. The deal covers deliveries of 10 billion cu m, both from Iran and from Turkmenistan.
“We’d like to increase the capacity of Turkmen gas coming through the swap deal,” Bayraktar told media. Turkey earlier this year signed a deal for 1.3 billion cu m of Turkmen gas, to be transited via Iran.
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