Turkey Slows Down Turkish Stream, Asks Moscow to Be Patient

Amid growing ties with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, Turkey might take some time and slow down the developments of Turkish Stream. 

Recent declarations of Turkish officials suggest that Ankara will probably slow down the Russia-led project to avoid a negative effect on the TANAP pipeline from Azerbaijan.  

"The issue is not Turkish Stream alone. This is a whole package for Turkey's energy needs. We need to be a little bit patient," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters, adding that the project will be delayed to at least 2017. 

Last week, the European Commission said that a final decision for TANAP should be taken by the end of April. Baku is scheduled to deliver 6 bcm/a of gas to Turkey in 2019 and 10 bcm/a to Europe in 2020.

Recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a trilateral cooperation with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to jointly develop energy projects. The heads of Turkmenistan and Turkey met in Ankara on March 4. 

The European Union is equally trying to strengthen ties with Ashgabat and Baku.

“We have learnt the lessons from Nabucco. This project failed because there was not enough political support. We simply believed that this project would happen just because of the business interests” he said in the interview to the British newspaper” European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič said last month.