The first months of 2020 have seen a significant shakeup of Turkey’s gas import sourcing, to the detriment of its traditional suppliers. For the first time ever, LNG overtook piped volumes in March as spot prices continued to seek out new lows. The development is especially galling for Russia, which inaugurated the much-hyped new Turkstream gas pipeline to Turkey in January (MEES, 10 January).
Turkey receives baseload gas supplies by direct pipelines from three neighboring producers: Russia (across the Black Sea), Iran and Azerbaijan. Together the three have typically met well over 80% of Turkey’s gas needs, although the share fell to a record annual low of 70% for 2019. This came as a surge of cheap spot LNG proved competitive against relatively inflexible oil-linked contracts for piped gas. (CONTINUED - 760 WORDS)
