Türkiye-Azerbaijan talks on gas purchases continue

Türkiye continues negotiations with Azerbaijan on gas purchase and sale issues, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar said, Report informs.

“We are moving towards restructuring our contracts for [importing] pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to secure 70-80% of contracts on a long-term basis, and the rest through the spot market. At the same time, our negotiations with Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran continue,” Bayraktar said in an interview with Sabah newspaper on May 1.

In addition, he noted that Türkiye is discussing the possibility of concluding a contract with the ExxonMobil for the purchase of up to 4 billion cubic meters of LNG.

“As for Exxon, we have so far worked with the US only on a spot basis. In other words, there was cheap LNG, and we bought gas closer to winter and its end. Now we can conclude a contract for the purchase of LNG for 5-10 years. We are discussing an agreement to purchase about 4 billion cubic meters, but perhaps in a smaller volume,” he said.

In the third quarter of 2021, Azerbaijan and Türkiye entered into a new agreement on the sale and purchase of 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the first stage of development of the Shah Deniz field, supplied via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline. The agreement provides for the supply of 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas per year by the end of 2024 [fourth quarter of 2021-2024]. The deliveries under the agreement began on October 1, 2021.