ExxonMobil offers Türkiye to buy U.S. gas

Türkiye is in talks with U.S. energy company ExxonMobil over a multibillion-dollar deal to buy liquefied natural gas, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

Türkiye is seeking to build a “new supply portfolio” that will make it less reliant on any single partner, the minister told in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper.

Türkiye would secure up to 2.5mn tons of LNG a year through the long-term deal under discussion with Exxon, he said, adding that the pact could last for a decade.

Bayraktar said the commercial terms of the Exxon deal were still under discussion.

Ankara is seeking to “diversify” its natural gas supplies before some of its long-term contracts with Russia expire in 2025 and those with Iran expire in 2026, Bayraktar said, adding that “we need to look at the competitiveness edge; which gas is cheaper?”