ANKARA, September 15. /TASS/. Turkey already has an energy exchange for trading gas, though it is not against the creation of an additional trading platform, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a briefing.

"As far as the gas hub is concerned, everyone misses out an important issue I think. You can trade in gas at a Turkish energy exchange even today. We have a very well-functioning energy exchange, as well as a gas exchange. Of course, a gas exchange, trade in gas is rather limited because we have the main supplier, BOTAS, and not so many various alternative importers of suppliers. However, we have a trading platform now. Over-the-counter trading is carried out each day. We have a benchmark price for gas at the Turkish energy exchange EPIAS," he explained.

Ankara is not against an additional trading platform, the minister noted. "Do we need an additional trading platform? We can have it, no problem. But what we offered to our Russian colleagues is the opportunity to analyze a power exchange [in Turkey] as of today. Their idea is not to construct an additional pipeline, but to create a trading platform. We only have to make probably some additional adjustments or changes on the online trading platform EPIAS and, let’s say, provide various products, futures contracts or something like that. But obviously, the existing trading platform operates," he said.

On September 11, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the project on a gas hub in Thrace remained Ankara’s priority. The country’s energy ministry and other involved agencies have received instructions to continue the work on that issue. Apart from a hub, Ankara plans to create a commodity exchange in Istanbul for trade in energy resources, metals, mineral resources where the market price will be formed.

In October 2022, Russian President Vladimir 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.