Turkish President: Thrace region will turn into an energy hub of international importance

The Thrace region in the northwest of Turkiye will turn into an energy hub of international importance, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the launching of the second stage of the Silivri underground gas storage expansion project, Report informs citing Anadolu.

"Our goal is to form a global center in Turkiye in the short term, in which gas prices will be formed," he stressed.

The Turkish leader noted that Turkiye's energy concept involves reducing the country's dependence on external sources by 2053 from 71 to 13%.

Earlier, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkiye, Fatih Donmez, said that the first steps to create a hub in Turkiye, providing for the supply of Russian gas to Europe, may be taken at the outset of 2023.

On October 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed creating a gas hub in Turkiye through which the lost volume of transit through the Nord Streams could be redirected.

In early November, the official representative of the Turkish President, Ibrahim Kalin, announced that the project does not exclude the possibility of building another pipeline to expand the Turkish Stream.