HomeNewsTurkey extends Russian gas imports for a year as it plans U.S. investment

Turkey extends Russian gas imports for a year as it plans U.S. investment

12/4/2025
  • Turkey aims to reduce reliance on Russian energy
  • Gazprom supply contracts were due to expire at year-end
  • S. investment would hedge against higher prices, says minister
  • Turkey in talks over Iranian gas imports
  • Also in negotiations for nuclear plants

Turkey has extended its expiring Russian gas import contracts by a year as it plans U.S. infrastructure investment as part of efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy, the Turkish energy minister said.

Turkey is Russia's last major natural gas market in Europe after years of war-related Western sanctions on Moscow. It imports a total of 22 Bm3 of gas under the Gazprom contracts that expire at the end of the year, amounting to less than 40% of Turkey's overall gas mix, down from more than 50% in 2018.

The Russian gas is supplied via the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines under multi-year contracts starting from February 2003 and January 2020, respectively.

Turkish state gas importer BOTAS has separately signed a series of long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG), much of which is from the United States, taking advantage of large global LNG supply over the next few years.

BOTAS will continue to be supplied by Gazprom next year, but with a more short-term focus of one year, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in embargoed comments to reporters in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Investment in U.S. gas production. The minister said Turkey also plans to invest in U.S. gas production facilities to hedge against potential price increases on the 1,500 LNG cargoes it has agreed to buy from the U.S. over the next 15 yrs.

"To hedge our position and create the whole value chain, we are considering investing in the upstream U.S. market," Bayraktar said. State company TPAO was in talks with U.S. energy majors including Chevron and Exxon and a deal could be concluded next month, he added.

The U.S. became Turkey's fourth-largest gas supplier this year at 5.5 Bm3.

Most of the U.S. LNG deals came shortly before President Tayyip Erdogan's September visit to the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump asked him to stop buying oil from Russia, Turkey's largest supplier since 2022.

Russia supplied about half of Turkey's crude imports from January to September this year, but Turkish refiners cut imports sharply in November, Kpler data shows.

Private companies handle Turkey's oil and oil product imports, but Bayraktar said they are likely to comply with reductions, having done so in 2016–2017 in compliance with sanctions on Iran.

"It will be their call," he said, adding that the government would step in if supply security was threatened.

Iranian gas talks and Turkmen supplies. Turkey is also in negotiations with Iran over a 10-Bm3 gas import contract that expires next July, aiming to ramp up gas supplies from Turkmenistan, Bayraktar said.

Turkey signed a one-year 1.3-Bm3 gas deal with Turkmenistan this year, sourcing the gas via Iran.

Separately, Turkey plans to add two more floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) over the next few years to increase its LNG intake capacity, with the potential to charter them later to Morocco and other countries, the minister said.

Turkey currently has three FSRUs and two on-shore LNG gasification terminals, with combined capacity of 50 Bm3.

In expectation of significant increases in its electricity consumption, Turkey also plans to build two more nuclear plants and is in talks with South Korea's KEPCO and Canada's AtkinsRealis over deals to build them.

U.S.-based Westinghouse has expressed interest in being involved in the second plant with KEPCO, Bayraktar said.

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