Weakness of Turkish Lira Pushes Gas Bill Up

Despite its advantageous geographic situation and declarations of interest from several gas-rich countries, Turkey’s energy security remains at risk, also in relation to recent Forex movements.  

According to Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, the weakness of the Turkish lira came along with an additional $3.8 billion to Turkey's natural gas bill in the last 8 months. 

Turkey is negotiating stronger ties with Russia, Israel and Iran. 

Yildiz added there had been an 8% drop in Russian gas sales to Turkey in the last 5-6 months, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Yildiz claimed he had sent a draft inter-governmental agreement to Russia on the proposed Turkish Stream project, but he had not received any answer yet. On the other hand, UPI wrote that the Kremlin has not received proposals from Turkey on the proposed natural gas pipeline.  

Meanwhile, amid a strong focus on gas matters, Israeli newspapers said that Tel Aviv could be interested in selling gas to Ankara.  

Teheran also expressed its resolve to find a solution to the current gas dispute between Iran and Turkey. Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Amirhossein Zamani-Nia recently said that sanctions relief is set to open new opportunities. He added that Turkey could increase its gas imports from Iran.  

Moreover, last week, Turkey was reported to be mulling investments in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), eyeing Statoil’s 20% stake in the final pipeline of the project connecting Azerbaijan with Italy. 

Finally, on Sunday, the United States informed the Turkish government that ‘the U.S. deployment of Patriot air and missile defense units in Turkey which expires in October will not be renewed beyond the end of the current rotation.’