SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Where Turkey and Iran have ideological differences and both the countries seem at tug-o- war on regional politics, there Turkey is eyeing on importing natural resources from Iran. Turkey may be let down by the fact that the P5+1 ended up striking a deal with Iran without Ankara’s significant diplomatic involvement – which was an important self-appointed role for Turkish foreign policy circles. Yet, this doesn’t mean that Turkey will not benefit from the deal. In Turkey, energy industry sources have reported that Ankara is preparing its pipeline infrastructure to enable transit of Iranian gas to Europe once sanctions are removed. However, natural gas production requires much larger investments than oil production, and concluding a supply contract generally takes a number of years. In addition, either long-distance pipelines or liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities cost billions of dollars, with these costs recovered only over many years. Such investments are therefore not undertaken lightly. Accordingly, after sanctions are removed, it will probably take at least five years, and possibly much longer, until meaningful volumes of Iranian gas hit European markets. Thus the most substantial benefit indeed is the fact that connecting Iran to the Southern Gas Corridor is now a possibility – albeit a difficult one. Rovnah Abdullayev, president of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR), went on the record on April 4, stating that Iran is interested in purchasing a stake in TANAP. From an energy policy point of view, this is good news for all sides concerned. Now Moscow and Tehran could also find themselves competing for gas market share in neighboring Turkey. Already Russia’s second largest gas export market, Turkey’s role in Russia’s gas export strategy has recently grown with Russia’s proposed route change of the South Stream export pipeline from Bulgaria to Turkey. Thus Turkey would be benefited both from Tehran and Moscow which have huge potential of natural resources
pakistan.shafaqna.com
