Archives Gas - Page 3 of 3 - New Eastern Outlook

Turkey and Iran continue to be important Middle Eastern nations. Due to their geographical proximity, imperial past, violent rivalry, theological tensions (between Sunnism and Shiism), and, of course, the continuous divergence of geopolitical interests, both nations have a rich history of relations. There were multiple Turkish-Persian clashes and wars, with various interruptions and varying degrees of success, during the Ottoman and Persian empires. Regarding the significance of the harem in the Ottoman Empire, historians have observed that…

Iran is attempting to create a gas alliance involving Qatar. While Turkey is attempting to rescue the grain deal, Iran is actively promoting the concept of establishing a gas hub of its own. The gas swap between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan via Iran served as a test phase. Later in November 2022, Russia and Iran started researching the idea of swapping gas supplies, which initially would be around 10 billion cubic meters per year. Iran formally proposed to Russia and Turkmenistan a large-scale gas swap in February 2023, in which Russia would get gas in the north and Turkmenistan would supply it in exchange in either direction in the south. They specifically discussed deliveries of gas to Pakistan, near whose border Iran is building a gas pipeline with a capacity of 100 million m3/day of gas (about 36.5 billion m3/year), opening up the prospect of supplying India in the future.

Following the undermining of Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Baltic Sea by Western special services at the end of September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow on October 12, 2022, proposed to depoliticize the issue of gas trade and create a “major gas hub” on the territory of Turkey. Moscow plans to redirect the main gas export flows through Turkey to third countries (including the EU). This topic has caught the attention of world actors and provided the same Turkey with new horizons for energy development. The Russian leader’s initiative also came as a surprise…