Eurasia Review: Russia-Turkey Deal And Geopolitics of Gas

In early December this year, Russia sprang a huge surprise by signing a gas deal with Turkey that will enable Russia to pump natural gas into a Turkish hub, near the Turkey-Greece border and from there into the southern EU market. President Putin has said that Russia is ready to build a new pipeline under the Black Sea to meet Turkey’s growing gas demand. Russian gas supplies to Turkey will be raised by 3 billion cubic meters via the already operating Blue Stream pipeline at a reduced price for Turkish customers by 6 percent from January 1, 2015.

Turkey, playing the role of facilitator, will cement energy ties with Russia, at time when the latter is facing Western sanctions and a proxy war on oil prices. Global oil prices have plunged to less than USD 60 a barrel, drastically reducing Russian revenues and undermining Russia’s export earnings. A NATO member and a perennially waiting candidate for EU membership, Turkey’s energy alliance with Russia is a signal of Turkey’s pivot towards Eurasian integration and flexible multipolarity.

Earlier, Turkey had rejected joining any sanctions regime against Russia. American silence on the Russia-Turkey gas deal is significant. It hobbles American objectives of undermining Russia and scuttles the chances of the Qatar-EU gas pipeline that was supposed to go through Syria and Turkey. On December 1, 2014, Russia announced that it was abandoning the South Stream project because the European Union had decided that it did not want it, having championed it earlier as a new route for Russian gas to the EU. MORE