A meeting between Alexey Miller Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Taner Yildiz, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey took place today as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2013.

The meeting looked at the actual cooperation between Russia and Turkey in the gas industry and paid special attention to forging closer ties among Gazprom and Turkish companies in Russian gas supplies as well as to the possibility of setting up joint projects in the energy sector.

It was highlighted that the Blue Stream gas pipeline was vitally important in terms of diversifying the Russian gas supply routes to Turkey and that it allowed replenishing the gas deficiency in the Turkish market in cases of emergency. In addition, the parties discussed the role of South Stream in enhancing the reliability of gas supply to Turkey's western regions near Istanbul.

Based on the meeting results, the parties expressed the shared opinion that the Russian-Turkish relations had a great development potential, while closer ties in the gas business could guarantee stable energy supply to millions of Turkish consumers.

Background

The cooperation in the gas sector between Russia and Turkey commenced in 1984 when the Governments of the Republic of Turkey and the USSR signed the Agreement on Natural Gas Supply to Turkey.

In 2012 Gazprom exported 27 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey via two routes: the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline and the Blue Stream gas pipeline.

Turkeyis the world's second largest buyer of Russian gas behind Germany.

The Blue Stream gas pipeline supplements the existing gas transmission corridor running from Russia to Turkey through Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. Blue Stream significantly enhances the reliability of gas supplies to Turkey and contributes essentially to the gas market development in this country.