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Turkey to construct physical hub within gas center project — energy minister

"What we are trying to do in Thrace is a physical hub that we are trying to connect with all respective pipelines, including gas storage in Silivri and LNG facilities, building a connection point in the Thrace region to create a real, physical hub," Alparslan Bayraktar said

ANKARA, September 15. /TASS/. Turkey will construct a physical hub in Thrace in the country’s west within the project on the creation of a gas center for connecting all existing gas pipelines, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a briefing.

"If we look at current supplies to Turkey, we have five regasification terminals. Globally speaking, Turkey may receive 30-40 bln cubic meters of gas via LNG. Again, there are many different countries. For example, the US has become an important supplier of LNG to the Turkish market, or Algeria, Qatar and other countries. Oman joined this club not long ago. We also take gas from Iran. The pipe capacity currently stands at 11 bln cubic meters. Two pipelines from Azerbaijan: TANAP and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline with a capacity of 22 bln cubic meters. Some 10 bln cubic meters flow to the European market, while the remaining volume may remain in Turkey. Some 16 bln cubic meters are provided through Blue Stream and 15.75 bln cubic meters through [each of the lines of] TurkStream. All this gas is delivered to Turkey and our chain is quite integrated," he explained.

"What we are trying to do in Thrace is a physical hub that we are trying to connect with all respective pipelines, including gas storage in Silivri and LNG facilities, building a connection point in the Thrace region to create a real, physical hub. Consequently, gas from any of those countries will be able to easily reach the region, moving from the east to the west, from the north to the south and vice versa," the minister added.

He admitted that foreign investors may participate in the project. "We can make those investments. Each year Botas expands its throughput capacities. The UAE is interested much in infrastructure projects in gas and energy sectors, so international partners can play a role," Bayraktar concluded.

On September 11, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the gas hub project remained Ankara’s priority.

In October 2022, Putin proposed establishing such a hub in Turkey to where the lost gas transit flows through the Nord Stream pipeline could be redirected. Turkey has said that almost everything is ready to start the project in terms of infrastructure, but that legislative amendments are needed.

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