Sputnik: Experts Believe Planned Gas Hub in Turkey May Change Its Image in Europe

Creation of a gas hub in Turkey for Gazprom deliveries to Europe may change the Europeans' view of the country, as well as trigger the rise of energy bills, the analysts of the Energy Policy Research Group (EORG) at the University of Cambridge expressed their opinion to Sputnik Thursday.

On Wednesday, the EU energy chief Maros Sefcovic and Russia's energy giant Gazprom head Alexei Miller held gas talks in Moscow. Miller announced that Gazprom plans to deliver 63 cubic meters of gas to the European Union using its newly-mapped Turkish route, bypassing the Ukrainian territory. Therefore, Gazprom CEO called on the European partners to create the necessary infrastructure at the Turkish-Greek border.

"If Europeans are to build the pipes to connect the Turkish-Greece hub with existing grid they have to be Western European TSOs [Transmission System Operators] (the big ones with cash). The real implication of this would be an upward pressure on energy bills of European consumers since TSO are regulated entities and any unused capacity would have to be socialized," Dr. Chi-Kong Chyong, research associate of EPRG, said.
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