Turkey strongly supports Turkish Stream: Erdogan

The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has started work on the vast projects to diversify Europe's energy resources and support its energy security.

Speaking at opening of the World Energy Congress in Istanbul October 10, he said that Turkey is building an additional corridor which will deliver natural gas to Europe. This is the southern gas corridor, which will bring gas from central Asia to Europe.

Turkey is the fourth route for shipping gas to Europe after Norway, Algeria and Russia, he noted. Russia though is also eyeing Turkey as a route to bring gas to Europe, in which case it would compete with the European Commission-backed southern gas corridor which will deliver gas from Azerbaijan to Europe across Turkey.

"Turkey strongly supports the proposed Turkish Stream pipeline. We're working on Turkish Stream project with a positive attitude," Erdogan said.

Turkish Stream

(Credit: Gazprom)

"The second phase of the Turkish Stream project can be built, depending on developments in European natural gas markets," he said. Turkish Stream project downsized to two lines with capacity of 31.5bn m³/yr from four lines, all with the same capacity. He also added that Turkmen gas may fit into the the TransAnatolian Pipeline project which will ship Azeri gas to European markets.

'Reliable partner'

Also speaking was Russia's president Vladimir Putin, who said Russia was planning to build Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline. "Russia will be reliable supplier of energy as always. Russia has supplied natural gas to Europe for more than 50 years," he said during his speech in the opening ceremony.

Putin said that Russia would support Opec's planned cut in oil production in November if the cartel decided to go ahead with the agreement in Algiers in late Septmber. "Oil production cut is the only decision that might stabilise the health of the energy sector," he said. The Brent Crude contract has been tradingt steadily above $50/barrel in expectation of affirmation of a production limit, although the details remain under wraps.

Murat Basboga