Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz signed an agreement yesterday (Dec 28) which allows Russian company OAO Gazprom to build a natural gas pipeline to supply Europe through Turkeys Black Sea waters. CEO of OAO Gazprom, Alexey Miller, announced that the company plans to build the first line of South Stream with an annual capacity of 15.5bn m3 by the end of 2015. On a related note, Turkey and Russia also agreed to extend two gas supply contracts to 2021 and 2025, according to Putin. Miller also announced that Turkish Botas will increase its natural gas imports from Russia by a 2bn m3 next year. Turkey has an obligation to annually imports at least 24bn m3 of natural gas from Russia; however, it is expected to import a 25.8bn m3 in 2011, Bloomberg reported. On a separate note, Reuters reports by quoting unnamed Turkish government officials saying that Botas will import a 3bn m3 of natural gas from the Western Line pipeline in 2012 under the terms of the take-or-pay agreement. |
The jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, called for a ceasefire on Thursday, ordering armed PKK militants to withdraw from Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the city of ... more
The Syrian government said the rebel groups foreign supporters, Turkey and Qatar, were responsible for a chemical attack in Aleppo. The countries that back and support the rebels, including ... more
US secretary of state John Kerry was in Ankara on Friday for talks with the Turkish leaders, including PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, focused on the crisis in Syria, ... more