World Bulletin: Turkish minister: Gas price talks with Russia promising

The negotiations between Turkey and Russia about pricing natural gas and a new gas pipeline look promising, a Turkish official said Wednesday.

Speaking to Turkish television network NTV, Taner Yildiz, the Turkish energy minister, said that the two previous meetings were not successful, but that the ongoing negotiations with Russian gas company Gazprom's top official, Alexey Miller, looked promising.

"With the oil price slump, natural gas prices are falling as well. This affects gas producing countries, like Russia, negatively, and puts a strain on the ongoing negotiations too," he added.

Yildiz said that the current gas prices are at Nov. 2008 rates, despite the rise in value of the U.S. dollar. Natural gas prices are mostly indexed to crude oil prices. Since gas contracts are renewed every six months, prices for new gas contracts are determined by past prices of crude oil.
MORE