No gas cut to Turkey after downed jet, Russian agency cites official

Russia‘s Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky said on Tuesday that Turkey‘s downing of a Russian jet will not result in Moscow cutting off its natural gas supply to Ankara.

Gas supplies to Turkey will continue in accordance with contract liabilities, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Yanovsky as saying on Tuesday.

“It could not have been otherwise,” the Russian official replied to a question as to whether Moscow will follow the contract terms.

Turkey imports 95 percent of its energy from abroad and meets 55 percent — or 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) — of its natural gas consumption and 30 percent of its oil needs from Russia.

Separately, the contractors of Turkey’s first nuclear energy plant — which is currently under construction despite criticism — are two subsidiaries of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom.

Experts weighed in on the situation from the energy standpoint: “I don’t think the situation between the two countries will have an economic dimension. In the past, Russia did not immediately react economically to countries with which it was engaged in a dispute. The EU is one example of this. The economic dimension is left aside in events like this, columnist Uğur Gürses said.

“Due to falling prices, the economy constricted,” Gürses said, referring to falling global oil prices that have battered the Russian ruble and impacted the Russian economy. “On the topic of the downed plane, they [Russia] won’t adopt a ‘let’s close the valve’ attitude. The political reverberations will be more contentious,” he said.

Fragile trade ties

“Turkey is dependent on Russia for 55 percent of its natural gas. We buy 16 percent of our crude oil from Russia. Thirty-five percent of the coal we import is from Russia,” said academic and energy expert Necdet Pamir, speaking to Hürriyet, pointing out Turkey’s deep dependence on Russian energy. He added that the situation is likely to create trouble for the Akkuyu nuclear plant that Russia is building in Turkey.

The latest crisis has brought bilateral trade ties between Moscow and Ankara to the spotlight once again. Turkey exports to Russia last year totaled $5.9 billion and its imports from Russia were $25 billion. The northern neighbor was Turkey’s seventh biggest export partner and its largest import partner in 2014. Additionally, around 20 percent of Turkey’s food industry exports went to Russia, while 15 percent of its textile exports were bound for Russia.

Source Turkiye