Berlin-Rome-Ankara
Turkey becomes part of the axis of Russia’s strategic partners.
After a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin proposed deepening cooperation in the energy field by swapping assets. The assets he was referring to are access to the Black and Caspian Sea resources and to the Turkish gas and transportation system. Ankara has also promised to issue all the permits for the building of the South Stream gas pipeline before November. Gazprom says Turkey is thus joining its other strategic partners, Germany and Italy.
Talks were held in Moscow yesterday between the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “The relations with Turkey have the character of a strategic partnership,” the Prime Minister’s press spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Today, a new mechanism of consultations between the Foreign Ministries that matches the new level of mutual relations was discussed. A ministerial working group to develop a strategic joint action plan was created in March 2009. The group’s decisions today have been supported and elaborated at a high level.” Before the talks, Turkey proposed creating an additional agency for interaction between the two countries (see Kommersant of January 13), but no decision has yet been made.
Back in August 2009, Putin and Erdogan signed a protocol on bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas spheres. Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the two countries “can trade not only in energy resources, but also swap assets and engage in cross capitalization.” Another Russian government official confirmed to the Kommersant that “a strategic decision has been made to swap production assets in the Black and Caspian Seas.” “Gazprom and Lukoil have a stake in the Tsentralnaya (Central) structure on the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. The company Itera has obtained a license to extract hydrocarbons on Unit 21 off the coast of Turkmenistan and is assigning 51% of the project to Zarubezhneft. Gazprom Kuban Dobycha is working on the Black Sea. The Turkish company TRAO is working on the Caspian Sea together with its Brazilian counterpart, Petrobras.
Russian business is more interested in the gas transportation infrastructure in the region than in extraction. “Russian companies are ready to take part in the privatization programme currently implemented by the Turkish government,” Vladimir Putin explained yesterday. A government official told the Kommersant that Gazprom would like to take part in the privatization of gas distribution companies in Ankara and Istanbul planned for this year.
The President of the Turkish international relations and strategic analysis centre Turksam, Sinan Ogan, says that at least 80% of Egdas (the gas transportation system of Istanbul) will be put up for tender at an estimated $2 billion. But, the expert said, the timing of the privatization will depend on the timing of the parliamentary elections in the country due to be held next year. In addition, the state company Botas is to be privatized.
Gazprom is also interested in the underground gas storage facility being built in Tuz, Turkey. It would like to buy into that project, a source told the Kommersant. After a high-level meeting, Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller and Botas acting Director-General Mehmet Konuk reviewed the results of 2009, noting that Turkey has moved into second place after Germany as a gas consumer, and discussed joint actions for 2010. Gazprom’s spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov confirmed that “an agreement has been reached in principle that the Turkish companies will become our strategic partners along with Germany and Italy.” “Business details have yet to be discussed,” he said.
One of Ankara’s key steps would be granting permission to build the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe through Turkish territorial waters under the Black Sea. Vladimir Putin said that “we have an agreement that Turkey will carry out the necessary reviews and issue a permit for construction before November 10, 2010.” To this end, Gazprom should make the results of its explorations available to Ankara. “The environmental studies are 100% complete, the geological and technical exploration is being actively pursued, and the project as a whole is 85-90% complete,” the Prime Minister said. Progress is less rapid on Russia’s joining the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, as agreed last summer. The parties failed to agree on the participating stakes of Rosneft and Transneft in the project. However, they decided to invite the Italian ENI which takes part in South Stream and Blue Stream (a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey on the bottom of the Black Sea).
Maxim Shein of Brokerkreditservis notes that this is not the first time Russia has tried to sign strategic agreements with Turkey. However, problems crop up between the two countries from time to time. Thus, Turkey has bought only 9 billion cubic metres of gas from Blue Stream instead of the promised 16 billion. Ankara has also failed to secure approvals of the transit of gas via its territory to Europe and Israel by existing pipelines.
Natalya Grib
