Turkish media: Ukrainian war sparks fresh gas war between nations

Today, four “blue fuel” production zones can be identified around Türkiye, which they want to turn into a gas hub. These are Russia, the Caspian countries (Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan), the Persian Gulf (Iran and Qatar) and the Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt and Israel).

According to Cumhuriyet, today Europe is the closest and largest market for the export of natural gas, but since the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine, a redistribution of the gas supplier market has begun. Russia has cut gas supplies to the European Union, with Washington heavily facilitating this cut through political blackmail. At the same time, the United States partially filled Europe's storage facilities with its expensive liquefied gas, the newspaper adds.

In addition, new gas reserves have been discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the countries of the Persian Gulf have established communications between themselves. It also led to a change in the global energy balance, in particular, in the gas policy balance between Europe and Asia.

The Ukrainian crisis has opened up opportunities for Ankara in this regard, and it is important for it to become part of the gas flow system between countries with gas reserves and the EU. Moscow has offered to create a gas hub in Türkiye, which means that it will not only be a logistics centre for transportation, but also a gas storage facility - this would give Ankara advantages, for example, to participate in pricing.

But so far there is no progress on this issue, as well as a final decision. Russia is trying to build a new partnership between Russia and Iran, which also wants to build a gas hub in Assaluyeh (southern Iran) in cooperation with Russia, Turkmenistan and Qatar.

The publication notes that even two hubs will cope with the needs, and Russia will also benefit from them. One will work for Europe, the second for Asia, and the coordination of the two projects will result in a collective benefit for manufacturers. The hub in Iran is important for Russia, Iran, Qatar and Turkmenistan for their gas pipelines. A hub in Türkiye, apart from Russia, is also needed by Israel and Egypt and Azerbaijan.