Turkish Stream talks put off due to problems in Turkish government

The Russian-Turkish talks on the Turkish Stream project have been suspended following Turkey’s futile attempts to form a new cabinet after the June elections.

Hurriyet quotes Sefa Sadik Aytekin, deputy assistant to the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister, as saying that Russia regards its gas discount for Botas as a compromise in the talks but due to the problems in the Turkish government, the negotiating process has been suspended. “I don’t see any lack of confidence between Turkey and Russia but we would be in a better position if Russia did not regard the discount as some concession on its part,” Aytekin says.

As EADaily reported earlier, in late July the sides agreed to raise the discount from 6% to 10.25%. It was then that Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia was ready to sign an intergovernmental agreement on one line of the Turkish Stream within the following couple of weeks.

In Dec 2014, Gazprom and Botas signed a memorandum of mutual understanding to build a gas pipeline from Russia through the Black Sea to Turkey. This step followed Russia’s decision to stop its South Stream project.