Gazprom Signs Deal to Supply Gas to Turkey for 30 Years

Gazprom has secured 30 year deal to supply natural gas to private companies in Turkey.

Reuter has reported that Turkey's energy market regulatory authority gave private energy companies Akfel, Bosphorus and Kibar licences to import gas from Russia's Western Line over 30 years. It also granted the Bati Hatti natural gas company a licence to import gas from the same pipeline for 23 years.

The four companies had previously agreed with Gazprom to import 6 bcm of natural gas a year on the Western line, which runs through Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria to Turkey, with an annual capacity of 14 bcm, the newswire said.

There has been a one-year impasse in gas trade between Gazprom and Turkish companies after Turkey's state gas company Botas did not renew an expiring 25-year contract at the end of 2011 due to a pricing dispute. Business has continued in the meantime only on a short-term basis.