How will regional attacks affect transit of energy resources through Turkey?

How will regional attacks affect transit of energy resources through Turkey?

Turkey plans to strengthen the protection of gas and oil pipelines.

"Turkey will deploy thermal cameras and horse-back patrols to heighten security around key oil and gas pipelines as Kurdish militant attacks increase, in a bid to safeguard energy supplies in the import-dependent country," Hurriyet reports.

According to experts, the latest terrorist attack of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline cost the economy $250 million, RIA Novosti reports. The pipeline, which supplies gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea were also attacked. The republic imports 98% of its natural gas and over 90% of oil, so it is very sensitive to explosions of the pipelines.

The head of the Center for Oil Research, Ilham Shaban, said in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that it will not have a noticeable impact on the transit. "Turkey started to build its first international pipeline from Iraq to Ceyhan in 1972. Then another one was built. Since 1980 these pipelines have been blown up several times. In addition, the Tabriz-Erzurum pipeline was built in 1996, which was under constant attack. And Turkey has continued to export both oil and gas in such circumstances," he said.

"Another thing is oil, because there are more financial costs and environmental damage," the expert added.

"If we look globally, we will see that, despite the war, the hot spots from Nigeria to Libya to other continents continue to produce and transport gas. For a certain period of time it would bring some kind of damage, and the issue will be removed from the agenda," Shaban said.

According to him, the current situation will not weaken Turkey's position on the global energy markets. "What is happening now does not mean that this will continue for years and that the current tensions are an eternal problem. It's a problem for some time," the head of the Center for Oil Research concluded.

A senior analyst of 'Uralsib Capital', Alexei Kokin, said that ongoing aggravation "creates certain risks for those energy sources which are sent to Turkey from the Gulf region." "If we take the situation on the European and world markets, none of these pipelines play a big role," he said.

However, they may weaken the position of Turkey as a player on the energy market. "Such explosions in fact are not so dangerous, particularly for the Turkish market, as they indicate that perhaps, Turkey will not be a very reliable transit partner in the future. If we keep in mind the ambitious plans for the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), then naturally it indicates their vulnerability," the expert said.

"The advantage of Turkey as an energy supplier in comparison with, for example, Ukraine and even Russia, is two points. Firstly, Turkey is a third party, that is, it does not produce gas itself. The second advantage is stability. But this has been called into question now," he noted.

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