ANKARA, May 5. /TASS/. A couple of Turkish private companies have started negotiating an extension or a renewal of gas purchasing contracts with Gazprom due to the upcoming expiration of their current agreements, the Haber Turk TV channel reported on Wednesday. The issue is about purchasing 8 bln cubic meters of gas per year.

Such holdings as Gama, AKSA, Demiroren, and Kalyon are taking part in the talks. A representative of one of the companies confirmed to the TV channel that "the talks are underway with the management of Gazprom’s export structures." "Many Turkish companies are highly interested in gas imports. We have to reach agreements on the price and the volumes of purchased gas to make sure that the negotiations move forward," he said.

The agreements for 8 billion cubic meters expire at the end of 2021. This is part of the total volume of 57-58 billion cubic meters of gas that Turkey annually imports for its own use. The Turkish side is not interested in signing long-term contracts where the price for gas purchases is pegged to the situation on the oil market, and Ankara is eager to conclude more flexible contracts as far as conditions and prices go, Haber Turk noted. That position has allegedly been reported to the Russian side.

The Turkish-Azeri agreement on the purchase of 6.6 bln cubic meters of gas expired in March, due to which gas supplies via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline stopped, the TV channel said. Moreover, the contract to buy 1.2 bln cubic meters of liquified gas from Nigeria will expire this year.

Chief Executive Officer of Gazprom Export Elena Burmistrova told TASS on April 29 that Russian gas deliveries to Turkey soared 106% in Q1 2021 to over 7 bln cubic meters. The volume of gas pumped through the TurkStream gas pipeline equaled 13.51 bln cubic meters in 2020.