Turkey ready for Southern Gas Corridor expansion; Europe needs clearer stance: minister

Turkey is ready to make long-term purchase commitments for gas from Azerbaijan, but Europe also needs to act if it wants the Southern Gas Corridor to be expanded, Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

In an interview broadcast on Azerbaijan's state-owned AZTV, Bayraktar said April 1 Turkey was a big market with demand rising for oil, gas, and power.

"If there is additional [gas] capacity available from Azerbaijan over the coming 15 years, our domestic market is available," he said. "Our industry, our economy, our population are all growing and we are ready and confident that we can make a long-term purchase agreement."

However, Bayraktar cautioned that Europe would need to make similar commitments to ensure the capacity of the corridor was doubled as provisionally agreed between the European Commission and Azerbaijan in July 2022.

"Long-term purchase agreements are needed," he said, adding that the EU had requested an expansion of the corridor and that meetings had been conducted involving the relevant parties including the EU and private companies.

"The EU needs to take a clearer stance," Bayraktar said, pointing out that the corridor involved not just Azerbaijan as the producer of the gas, but also Georgia, Turkey, and the countries of southeast Europe that are supplied with the gas.

"We [Azerbaijan and Turkey] have completed the most important parts of the infrastructure that are needed in order to double the supply of gas to Europe -- this is all ready," he said.

Corridor expansion

The TANAP pipeline in Turkey could be expanded to 31 Bcm/year, while the TAP pipeline that carries the gas from Turkey into Europe could be expanded to 20 Bcm/year, effectively doubling the route's total capacity.

TANAP currently has a capacity of around 16 Bcm/year, out of which 6 Bcm is supplied to Turkey and the remaining 10 Bcm transits into the TAP pipeline.

Substantial investments would be needed to raise the delivery capacity to Europe to 20 Bcm/year and Azerbaijani officials have warned on numerous occasions that the target could not be met unless European gas buyers signed new long-term contracts.

To date, however, the TAP consortium has agreed only to expand capacity to 11.2 Bcm/year by 2026.

Bayraktar also said April 1 that investment in exploration and production would have to be encouraged to ensure there was sufficient gas to double supply to Europe.

He added that the fourth Azerbaijan-Turkey energy forum will be held in the Turkish city of Izmir in September this year and for the first time will also be open to the private sector.

"We will also invite international companies to attend," he said.

Turkey diversifying

Commenting on Turkey's broader plans in the gas sector, Bayraktar said that for many years Turkey had been dependent largely on imports from Russia and Iran.

"These agreements will end soon and we need to find other sources of gas," he said, stressing the importance for Turkey to diversify its gas supply portfolio and increase competition in its domestic gas market.

Ankara is currently working on a new agreement with Azerbaijan to import gas from the Karabakh oil and gas field on the basis of an agreement in principle for imports to start in 2028-29, he said, without giving further details.

Turkey also began imports of gas from Turkmenistan under a swap deal with Iran in March.

"We will receive 1.3 Bcm of gas this year from Turkmenistan via Iran," Bayraktar said, adding that Turkey had made significant investments in new gas infrastructure over the past decade and its import options were not limited to pipelines.

"We have increased our LNG regasification capacity from 30 million cu m/d to 160 million cu m/d and will increase it further to 200 million cu m/d," he said, adding that Turkey currently met around 25% of its gas needs from LNG.

Bayraktar also stressed Turkey's commitment to developing its own domestic resources.

Production from the giant Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea is currently around 7 million cu m/d and will rise to 9 million cu m/d this month, he said.

By the third quarter of 2026, it will reach 20 million cu m/d and 40 million cu m/d by 2028, he said.