Turkish Stream: The Cost of Russia’s Stubbornness - CARNEGIE MOSCOW CENTER

20.10.2016,
By Mikhail Krutikhin

Unlike Russian gas pumped via Ukraine and Germany, that flowing through Turkey will face tough competition from Azerbaijani, Iranian, Iraqi, and possibly even Turkmen and Israeli gas. Gazprom’s rivals won’t need to ship their gas as far, and they will have much lower pipeline construction costs. The gas market in southeastern Europe is not that big and doesn’t have a lot of room for growth.

Not so long ago, Turkey was on the Kremlin’s list of adversaries following the NATO member’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet over the Syria-Turkey border. Now Russia is effectively relinquishing control over its southward gas export to Turkey. This is the extent to which the Kremlin is prepared to go to punish disobedient Ukraine—but it will come at a cost to Russia.

TANAP Pipeline Gas Transportation Capacity Fully Contracted - SPUTNIK NEWS

updated 13:29 18.10.2016

Gas for transportation via the TANAP pipeline has already been contracted, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev told Sputnik.

The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) will not face competition from other regional energy projects as gas for transportation via the pipeline has already been contracted, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev told Sputnik. 

"The volumes of gas that will be transported in the first stage along the entire length of the project, have already been contracted, they have already been sold. We have signed contracts for the increase in production, which will start in 2018 and should reach its peak in 2020-2021. Therefore, no other regional energy projects can compete with it, because we have already sold this gas," the president told Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency’s Director General Dmitry Kiselev in an interview.

TANAP is a major part of the Southern Gas Corridor that will connect the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan with Europe. The corridor will run from Azerbaijan to Turkey, through Greece, Albania, and deep under the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy.