Gazprom on Friday sent a alarm to its second-largest gas consumer Turkey over Ankara’s agreement with neighbouring Azerbaijan to establish a gas pipeline to Europe, a challenger to Moscow-backed planned South Stream trunk.
Gazprom is apprehensively ascertaining the latest developings in Azerbaijan, whose gas fields are the most highly-developed new non-Russian sources of gas that may be pumped to the European Union through with pipelines.
Moscow is keen on holding Azerbaijan, its former Soviet satellite, within the ambit of influence and is attempting to assure access to the country’s large gas riches, a bone of contention between Europe and Russia.
On Tuesday, Turkey and Azerbaijan contracted an inter-governmental agreement on the $7-billion Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline project (TANAP), configured to channel Azeri natural gas across Turkey to Europe.
Gazprom also stated it raised gas supplies to Turkey after it called for further volumes of Russian gas following a pipeline explosion,hampering gas flow from Iran to Turkey.
But Gazprom’s spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told if the Trans-Anatolian project is “accomplished as planned in 2018, Turkey could then apply for assistance to Baku,” according to Gazprom’s e-mailed statement.
In additional developing undermining Russian grip on the former Soviet Republic, Azeri’s Shah Deniz II consortium, led by BP Plc and Statoil, on Thursday chosen the Nabucco West pipeline for one of 2 potential routes to channel Caspian gas to western Europe.
