Turkish parliament approves changes to Botas structure to create gas hub

The Turkish parliament has approved changes to the structure of the state-owned oil and gas company Botas in order to implement the gas hub project, Report informs referring to the Sabah newspaper.

“The bill passed by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Parliament) will pave the way for the private sector to import natural gas. The structure of Botas will be changed to turn Türkiye into an energy hub,” the newspaper writes.

According to the changes, new divisions and companies will be created. “The subject matter, business name, capital and share capital structure of the companies that will be created for the purpose of unbundling and restructuring the activities of Botas, as well as issues related to the transfer and similar transactions that will be carried out within this framework, will be regulated by a presidential decree,” the newspaper reported.

Natural gas imports will be liberalized for both Botas and private sector entities. However, these provisions will not apply to imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and spot pipeline gas.

In October last year, the presidents of the Russian Federation and Türkiye instructed to work out in detail the issue of creating a gas hub in Türkiye. Through this hub, in particular, it would be possible to move gas supplies from the damaged Nord Streams.

At the same time, the deal is not only about creating a trading platform in Türkiye, but also about developing infrastructure and increasing supplies in the southern direction, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak said. Other countries can also participate here, he said, noting that Algeria, Qatar and Azerbaijan also supply gas to Europe via the southern direction.