President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye will make a state visit to Turkmenistan next week, where one of the key topics will be expanding cooperation in the field of natural gas supplies. This was announced by Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar during a meeting with journalists in Istanbul, as reported by TASS.
According to the minister, the visit to Ashgabat will focus, in particular, on increasing the volumes of Turkmen pipeline gas for the Turkish market. “The start of gas supplies from Turkmenistan to the Turkish market, and I think to the European market as well, has become important news. Because there is great potential in delivering Turkmen gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor. But this is just a small step. We are aiming to receive 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan. And most likely, next week we will head to Ashgabat together with President Erdogan,” Bayraktar noted.
Türkiye intends to increase the volumes of Turkmen gas supplied through Iran via a swap deal. This year, in March, the two countries signed a one-year agreement with Turkmenistan for 1.3 billion cubic meters. As the minister stated, about 0.5 billion of this volume has already been imported.