| Taken Question Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC January 9, 2008 Question Taken at Daily Briefing of Jan. 9, 2008 Suspension of Turkish Natural Gas to Greece (Taken Question)Question: Any comment on Turkey’s decision to halt the flow of Azeri gas to Greece due to a suspension of gas supplies from Iran to Turkey? Do we know why the gas flow has been disrupted?
Answer: Turkey temporarily suspended supplying Greece with the very small amount of natural gas that it ships via the Turkey-Greece “Interconnector” portion of the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline. The Turkish pipeline company BOTAS consulted with the Greek gas transmission company DEPA prior to the cutoff and continues to do so. The Greek government has stated that it has sufficient reserves and other sources of gas to cover this unexpected shortfall. The gas involved belongs to Turkey. Turkey imports gas from other countries, including Azerbaijan, some of which it commingles and then exports to Greece. It is incorrect to label the gas involved in this disruption as “Azeri gas” and we believe Azerbaijan continues to fulfill all its contractual obligations to Turkey. This situation points out the importance for European countries to acquire their supplies of gas from multiple sources and via multiple routes. In this case, one of the sources of gas that Greece utilized to stabilize its gas supply was Russian gas delivered by pipeline from Bulgaria. Although increased gas consumption in Turkey due to harsh winter weather contributed to this situation, we note that the primary cause of this cutoff is the unreliability of Iran as a supplier of natural gas. Iran reduced its gas exports to Turkey by 75% on January 1 and stopped them entirely on January 7, as it has sometimes done in previous years during the high-demand winter months. Business deals with Iran undermine international efforts to bring Iran into compliance with UN Security Council resolutions regarding its nuclear activities; in addition, oil and gas investments raise concerns under U.S. policy and law (the Iran Sanctions Act) –a point we have raised at senior levels with the Government of Turkey. |
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