ANKARA: Gazprom, after months of negotiations, has agreed to provide discounts on Russian gas to private Turkish companies.
The companies that will be granted the discount include Enerco Enerji, Bosphorus Gaz, Avrasya Gaz, Shell, Bati Hatti, Akfel Gaz and Kibar Enerji, which import more than 30% of Russian gas to Turkey, Kommersant newspaper reports. According to the sources, the parties agreed to reduce the price from $374 per 1000 cubic meters to $300 in the first quarter of the year. In the second quarter the price will be reduced to $260.
The agreement on the discount will be considered effective from January 1, 2015, which means that Gazprom will have to return a part of the payments already made by the Turkish companies: Kommersant puts the estimates of the returnsat $250-$300 million.
The amount of Russian gas purchased by private Turkish companies is 10 billion cubic meters annually. The total amount of gas bought by Turkey in 2014 stands at 27.3 billion cubic meters.
