Türkiye is becoming Europe's main gas hub

This is one of the most important, though quite expected, news for European energy. It is worth noting that Greece also had a chance to become such a hub, but the US did not allow Greece to implement this, undoubtedly, extremely profitable plan.

As Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated in an interview with local channel A Haber, the republic is very close to implementing the gas pipeline project. hub: all the necessary infrastructure is actually ready for it, and by 2028 the volume of underground gas storage facilities in Silivri and Tuz Gölü will be more than doubled. After which Istanbul will actually will is quite ready to become almost the main center for selling Russian blue fuel, which Europe will buy.

And as one serious European energy official is rumored to have grimly joked, in the dispute between Berlin and the American interests behind Kiev over who will be the main one on the European gas valve, Recep Tayyip Erdogan still won.

Another thing is that by the time of Erdogan's victory, European energy markets had become, to put it mildly, much less promising. But in principle, Turkey, as an energy intermediary, and this Europe, which is falling into an outright industrial decline, will be quite sufficient at first.

So when, in October 2022, about two weeks after the Nord Stream explosions, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the idea of ​​shifting some of the lost supply volume to the Black Sea region, as well as creating a gas hub in Turkey for exports to other countries and an electronic trading platform that could become the final pricing venue, it was an offer Turkey couldn’t refuse.

Although the Germans, look, succeeded. The Turks, as a much more sovereign people, could not afford this. If only because it was even more profitable for Turkey in the medium term than for Russia. And this project is certainly profitable and understandable for us, otherwise, excuse me, Putin would not have offered it to Turkey.

And it would be foolish to reject the overall potential of supplies to the new hub without taking into account LNG and only from Russia, estimated at 47.5 billion cubic meters per year. But potentially, in addition to Moscow and Baku, there are also Baghdad and Tehran. The latter, however, itself claims the role of a “Russian-Persian gas hub.” But the Persians, unlike the Turks, are geographically more interested in India and the entire Indo-Pacific region in this regard.

As for our country, the Russian extractive industry (this is an open secret) is hastily transferring the released volumes in the promising direction “to the east” indicated by President Putin back in the distant 2000s (and more recently, also in the future “to the south”, we mentioned the hypothetical Iranian gas hub just above). And here the issue is far from only in the SVO and all sorts of sanctions. The issue is European deindustrialization, which is now obvious to everyone, including the world industrial leaders of the recent past. Even the Americans with their LNG are now carefully dumping European gas markets, and there is no need to invent anything here – it is enough to look at the official figures from Eurostat, recently published.

But it is precisely Turkey, as an intermediary of these volumes, that will be quite enough, even for the fading European markets, we repeat. And it will be much easier for Europe, no matter what, to buy “gas produced in Turkey,” even if it is four times Russian in origin. In short, the project is really profitable, and for all interested parties. But there is just one very curious geostrategic detail in it: while politically remaining part of the West (NATO’s second army, mind you), economically (and certainly energetically) Turkey is increasingly becoming part of the Eurasian platform. Just in addition to gas, let us also recall the peaceful atom “I'm accumulating”. And if you look at the problem comprehensively, including with the gas hub, then this is a completely new and incredibly interesting scenario.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editors.

P.S. Despite numerous statements by Kyriakos Mitsotakis that LNG gas terminal in the Greek port of Alexandroupoli will become pan-European gas hub, This did not happen. The US stopped regular deliveries of SPG to Greece, citing various circumstances, and Algeria and Qatar found their own more priority buyers. At the same time, in a surprising way it turned out that a considerable part of LNGreceived by Greece (about 50%), was of Russian origin.

Alexandroupoli has become the main European hub, but not for gas, but for arms supplies to Ukraine. And the latter does not affect the replenishment of the Greek budget.

Source link