Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz stated on Thursday he did not think that natural gas transfer from Russia to Turkey would be cut off in winter.
Yildiz told reporters that Turkey had contracts with Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Nigeria and Algeria on natural gas, adding that all countries should pay attention to the contracts.
Yildiz stressed that companies like Russian Gazprom and others were working on this issue, saying, "Our talks with Russian officials continue. There is no official information presented to us regarding a problem. I don't think there will be any, because they are one of the biggest producers in the world. I hope that neither will we face any problems in our natural gas."
In 2011, the Russia was Turkey’s second largest trading partner ($30 billion; $6 billion exports, $24 billion imports) and the main item in bilateral trade was energy (70 percent of imports; $21 billion). Both Turkey and Russia attach importance to the principle of “mutual benefit” in energy relations. During the Russian and Ukrainian gas crisis of 2008 and 2009, as well as when Iran cut gas supplies to Turkey in 2007 and 2008 winters, Russia supplied extra gas to the Turkish market to remedy the possible negative impacts of shortages.
On June 21, 2013, Turkey's Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz met Gazprom's CEO Aleksey Miller and said preparations continue to hand over 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to the private sector.
