Turkey wants to receive Turkmen gas via Azerbaijan

Last winter, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke about Ankara's interest in transporting gas from Turkmenistan through Azerbaijan to Turkey and further to Europe. This possibility was discussed in connection with the signing on January 21, 2021 of a Memorandum of Understanding on joint exploration and development of the Dostlug hydrocarbon field in the Caspian Sea between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Fuat Oktay, Turkey’s vice president, said on June 2 that Turkey was examining three options for getting gas from Turkmenistan to Turkey and that it was conducting studies on all three. All three would use Turkey’s TANAP gas pipeline, which now carries only Azerbaijani gas and runs from northeastern Turkey to the border with Greece, Eurasianet writes.

Ankara's move appears to have been prompted by efforts by the European Union to secure new supplies of gas following Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. In response to European sanctions against Russia, Russia has retaliated by cutting energy supplies to Europe, raising fears of serious gas shortages on the continent.

Although Oktay didn't specifically mention transiting the gas on to Europe, the TANAP pipeline is the sole pipeline carrying Azerbaijani gas through Turkey to Greece. There it connects to the TAP pipeline carrying gas to Albania, Bulgaria, and Italy and onward to central European markets.

The TANAP pipeline has nearly 15 billion cubic meters a year of spare capacity, while the TAP pipeline has around 10 billion cubic meters a year. Brussels would like to see that capacity used to transit more gas to Europe.

Although short on detail, Oktay's announcement was significant, as it was the first time in over 20 years that Ankara has become directly involved in proposals to transit gas from Turkmenistan to Turkey. In 1999, Turkey supported a project proposed by a consortium of Shell, Bechtel and GE for a major pipeline to carry Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan and Georgia, to supply both Turkey and European markets. But the project was abandoned following the discovery of Azerbaijan's own significant gas reserves.

Oktay’s comments were lent further weight by where they were made: Turkey’s embassy in Ashgabat, following the conclusion of the 2022 summit of Caspian littoral states. That summit was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who used the occasion to call for a deepening of the partnership between Russia and its Caspian neighbors Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Oktay listed the three options under study as "a pipeline,” "a swap agreement," and "a combination of ships and pipeline." He added only that the studies were nearing a conclusion and that they had the full support of Turkmen president Serdar Berdymukhamedov. 

Given the enormous investment and the long development time that would be required, a major pipeline across the Caspian is currently highly unlikely. That means that the pipeline Oktay referred to was most likely the one proposed last year by U.S.-based Trans Caspian Resources (TCR). That project envisages the construction of a 48-mile pipeline across the center of the Caspian to carry gas currently flared by a Turkmen oil field to Azerbaijan's ACG oil and gas field whence it could be transited onward to shore by existing pipelines. TCR, which is co-headed by a former American ambassador to Turkmenistan, Allan Mustard, says the pipeline could carry between 10 and 12 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The second option of a "swap agreement" appears to refer to an existing agreement between Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan under which Turkmenistan supplies between 1.5 and 2 billion cubic meters a year of gas to northeastern Iran, with the same quantity being transited from northwestern Iran to Azerbaijan. Although nominally designed to meet Azerbaijan's growing domestic gas demand, there has been considerable speculation that the arrangement could be expanded to allow more gas to be transited on to Turkey and Europe, assuming Tehran could be persuaded to join the project.

Oktay's third suggestion of "ships and a pipeline" is less clear. However, with the volume of gas being unlikely to be sufficient to warrant the cost – up to $10 billion – of constructing LNG liquefaction and re-gasification terminals on opposite sides of the Caspian, it appears that Oktay was referring to ships carrying "compressed natural gas" - a far cheaper option already employed in some parts of the world, though not as yet in the Caspian.

Some experts say that Azerbaijan does not have enough gas of its own to boost exports to Europe to the levels Brussels is looking for. But on the other side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan, there is more than enough gas, and a gas swap with Iran is also a possibility.