Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated that the commissioning of the “TurkStream“ gas pipeline has effectively protected the country from regional energy risks.
“We have two main gas pipelines coming from Russia: “TurkStream“ and “Blue Stream“. The issue of “TurkStream“ arose in 2016. This is the second gas pipeline coming to us through the Black Sea.
Since the 1980s, we have received 14 billion cubic meters of gas through a transit pipeline through Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. If something happens in any of these countries, a conflict will arise between the supplier and the transit country. In 2022, a war broke out. Can you imagine what we are going through now?“, the minister noted.
He noted that “with the implementation of the “Turkish Stream“ project; the gas supply route through the Balkans has practically been moved“ to the Black Sea. “Currently, Hungary and Ukraine are practically in a state of war. Ukraine is preventing the pipeline from connecting to Europe. And we took a very important step then by diversifying our supply chain, although at that time there was no war or anything like that“, the minister said.