Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia may establish a gas distribution centre in Turkey because of the great difficulties in working directly with Europe, reported Duvar News.
During a meeting in Kazakhstan on 12 October, Putin said that Russia would consider a gas storage and distribution centre in Turkey, with Russia’s supplies to Europe disrupted by Ukraine-related sanctions and damage to key pipelines.
“Turkey has become the safest route for gas supply. It has become a much safer route than Europe. We can establish a large supply center in Turkey,” said Putin during a meeting with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan in Sochi.
“As for choosing Turkey as a possible supply centre for Europe, I think it’s obvious why we’re doing this, why we’re proposing it. Because it is very difficult to work directly with European partners,” added Putin.
As a tactical measure since the European countries are supporting Ukraine in the war, Russia will not send gas directly to Europe.
From France to Sweden, thermostats have been lowered to just 19 degrees Centigrade, (66 degrees Fahrenheit) and Slovakia has urged people to limit showers to two minutes, the New York Times reported.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), spoke to Euronews saying “Europe was by far the largest market, the largest client for Russia, and Russia lost this client forever. The biggest client.”
Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at energy consultancy ICIS, said that weak gas prices in recent days should not be considered as a sign that Europe is now out of the woods when it comes to managing the lost flows from Russia, reported CNBC.