With its initiatives in the energy sector, Turkey aims to become a global hub for determining natural gas reference prices, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday (16 Dec).
"Our aim is to transform our country into a global center where the natural gas reference price is determined as soon as possible," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony marking the completion of a project to expand a subterranean gas storage facility near Istanbul.
Speaking at the Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility in Istanbul, Erdogan said he had already discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and steps were already being taken.
Erdogan echoed what Putin said a day earlier that the price of gas sent to Europe would be largely determined by the natural gas center expected to be established in Turkey.
Putin added that the electronic platform needed for such trade could be set up in the “coming months.”
The TurkStream pipeline between Russia and Turkey provides gas to Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Hungary.
The delivery of Turkmen gas to Europe was one of the main items on the agenda of last Wednesday’s trilateral summit between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan in the western Turkmen city of Awaza.
The country's northwestern region of Thrace bordering both Greece and Bulgaria will become an especially important hub for both natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) with the increasing capacity of LNG and underground gas storage, he added at the event in the district of Silivri.
Erdogan said that Ankara was in contact with Moscow, a major natural gas producer and exporter, underlining that they would take the necessary steps to make Turkey an energy hub.
Also highlighting the importance of storage facilities as European countries faced the prospects of energy shortage, Erdogan said that with its expansion, the Silivri Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility was now the largest in Europe with a capacity of 4.6 billion cubic meters (bcm).
With the expansion, total natural gas storage capacity increased by almost 50% in the underground facility, with the amount gas stored rising from 3.2 bcm to 4.6 bcm by the year-end, the Turkish president added.
