Turkey to Abandon “Take-or-pay” Clause for Azeri Gas in 2015

Ankara will abandon the “take or pay” principle for Azerbaijani gas in the next 14 months. Similarly, Turkey is intentioned to scrap this clause for gas from Iran in the next two months.

"Turkey will abandon the "take or pay" principle in gas supplies from Azerbaijan in 2015," Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday. 

Azerbaijani newspapers wrote that Yildiz also stressed that Ankara already abandoned any similar clause for gas supplies from Russia in 2013.

“We pay for gas that we don’t buy. Advances of these payments are our citizens’ money. I think we will solve this,” Yildiz added, as reported by Azerbaijani news agency APA.

According to Trend.az, Ankara pays $335 for 1,000 cubic meters for Azerbbaijani gas via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, $425 for Russian gas and $490 for Iranian gas.