Erdogan on Saturday said Ankara and Moscow reached an agreement to reduce the price of the natural gas imported from Russia by 10.25 percent after long negotiations.
Speaking at a rally of the ruling Justice And Development Party (AK Party) in eastern Erzurum province, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey demanded a discount on the price of the natural gas from Russia via the Blue Stream and the Western Line in 2015.
The Turkish President said Turkey will also get a refund of $1 billion for the purchases made in the last two years when Gazprom initially agreed on the discount in early 2016.
Gazprom later on unilaterally canceled the 10.25 percent discount applied to natural gas and Turkey applied to the international court of arbitration to resolve the dispute.
Turkey, the second biggest consumer of Russian gas after Germany, imports around 30 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia annually via the two pipelines.
The private sector in Turkey imports 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, representing over 30 percent of Russia’s gas exports to Turkey. Out of 48 bcm, 38 bcm was imported by the state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipeline and trading company, BOTAŞ.
Turkish construction giant Rönesans signs 4 deals in Russia including key gas processing plant
In the same context, one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates, Rönesans Holding, has signed four agreements in Russia, the Turkish holding announced on Saturday. The holding signed agreements for projects of the Amur Gas Processing Plant, Sberbank, Administrative Divisions of Moscow and Trams in St. Petersburg under the scope of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), it said in a press release.
The 1.3-billion-euro ($1.52 billion) agreement with an Italian engineering and construction company Maire Tecnimont includes Russian energy giant Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant’s building works, which will be completed by 2023.
“We undertook with this agreement Gazprom’s largest gas processing plant in Russia,” Alptekin Tizer, president of the Rönesans Heavy Industries, said.
He said the plant would have 42-billion-cubic-meter production capacity and it will process Yakutia and Irkutsk’s gas.
The plant will carry Russia’s gas to China and it will support Amur and East Siberia regions’ social, economic and industrial development.
Another agreement — Memorandum of Understanding — for building the Yuniy transfer station, Yujnaya subway station and Kolpino tramway project investment cost will be planned for 20 billion rubles (some $321 million), the press release said.
The agreement with the Administrative Divisions of Moscow includes projects in medical services, offices and hotel complexes, and investment appeals.
Meanwhile, Sberbank and the Rönesans Holding signed an agreement to cooperate in several areas such as investment banking and financing activities.
The holding — established in 1993 — operates in over 20 countries, including Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Qatar, Finland, Belgium, Gabon and Japan.
