Yuri Kobzar15:39, 05/03/23

The deferral of payments was achieved in response to a mutual favor – a promise to build a gas hub in Turkey.

Russia has allowed Turkey to postpone indefinitely payments on last year’s Russian gas deliveries. An agreement was reached between the Turkish government and the Russian state corporation Gazprom, writes Reuters .

Problems with payments for imported gas from the Turkish authorities arose due to a sharp rise in prices last year – up to $ 97 billion, which is almost twice the average in recent years.

“There were negotiations, an agreement was reached with Russia, with the Gazprom company to defer payments above a certain level after last year prices rose enormously, which no one could have foreseen,” Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said.

According to The Moscow Times , as a return service for the delay, the Kremlin asked Recep Tayyip Erdogan to create a gas hub in Turkey that will replace the destroyed Nord Stream pipeline system for Russia. 

The situation with Russian oil and gas exports

After the loss of the European gas market, which was the result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia began to reduce gas production . In the first quarter of 2023, gas production in Russia fell by almost 10% compared to the same period in 2022.

But the situation with oil is quite different. Although Russia cannot sell oil directly to Europe due to sanctions, it has dramatically increased its exports to India and other countries of the “global South”. Because of this, the cost of an individual barrel of Russian oil began to fall.

(C)UNIAN 2023