Free Read
Turkey is set to sign a long-term LNG deal with TotalEnergies at this week’s Gastech expo in Houston, sources told the Middle East Eye (MEE).
The 10-year agreement will begin in 2027, the sources said, declining to specify the amount of LNG that would be supplied.
This deal was said to be part of several agreements that Turkish Energy Minister, Alparslan Bayraktar has negotiated this year.
For example, Turkish national pipeline company Botas had signed another decade-long deal with Shell earlier this month, also beginning in 2027 to supply 4 bill cu m of LNG per year, which will be used for domestic consumption, as well as for re-export.
The sources thought that the Turkish volume will be lower than the Shell agreement, without pinpointing the exact amount, MEE said.
In May, Ankara also signed a separate decade-long deal with US energy giant ExxonMobil to supply 2.5 mill tonnes of LNG per year.
The sources said that these deals with with the energy majors were aimed at strengthening Turkey’s hand in contract-renewal negotiations, which will begin to intensify next year.
Bayraktar said in a live broadcast last Wednesday that Botas’s gas contracts with Russia using the Blue Stream pipeline will expire in 2025 and its long-term pipeline gas purchase contracts with Iran will end in 2026, adding that in 2027, Algeria’s LNG deal with Ankara will also cease, which involved importing 4.4 bill cu m of LNG per year.
“The gas prices in the next decade are expected to drop significantly and we are looking to diversify our resources for the future to get the best prices for Turkish households,” one source told MEE.
Some of the deals signed with the energy companies also includes an option to resell some of the Turkish gas purchased to third countries.