Turkey Sees Major Threat From Possible Russian Gas Cut

Speculation of a Russian natural gas cut has sparked major concerns in Turkey as the country only has a 14-day storage supply, the Turkish media reported on Friday.

EU regulations require member countries to have a 45-day storage reserve of natural gas in the event of a supply cut, while during the winter months countries are expected to have a reserve that would last for at least 30 days. Turkey has not been able to increase the capacity of its natural gas storage facilities despite increasing its consumption in recent years, according to the report.

After downing a Russian jet that briefly flew into Turkish airspace on the Syrian border, a diplomatic crisis has arisen between Ankara and Moscow, the latter of which supplies Turkey with more than half of its natural gas. Relations had already soured between the two countries over Moscow's involvement in Syria, as Russian troops have been bombing rebel forces fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who is considered to be a close ally of Russia and a bitter enemy of Turkey.

Concerns have arisen over the possibility of Russia cutting off its natural gas shipments to Turkey, though Russia's deputy energy minister said on Tuesday that such a cut is out of the question and that shipments would continue in accordance with the agreement between the two countries. Turkey is energy dependent on countries such as Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan for its natural gas and oil imports as it possesses very little energy resources of its own.

Russia said on Thursday that it may impose various economic restrictions on Turkey, including measures to restrict the planned TurkStream gas pipeline, ending the cooperation in building Turkey's first nuclear plant and limiting civilian flights to and from Turkey. Such moves would heap serious pain on either Turkey or Russia, both of which are already struggling economically.

Energy exports from Russia to Turkey are the biggest part of the trade relationship. After Germany, Turkey is the second-largest buyer of Russian natural gas. Russia's Gazprom supplies about 27 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year, or almost 70 percent of the total gas Turkey consumes. (Cihan/Today's Zaman)