Reuters: $600m gas payment to Russia delayed, amount may increase

Following the deal that allowed Turkey to defer payments to Russia, its main source of gas supplies, the first delay came recently, with the $600 million deferred until 2024.

According to information provided to Reuters by two sources familiar with gas payments, the $3-4 billion gas payment may be postponed until 2024, depending on the change in global energy prices.

Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez announced last week that Turkey had reached an agreement with Russia for the deferral of payments.

Two sources noted that the first deferral of $600 million was made recently and the payment has been postponed to 2024.

‘POSTPONED TO NEXT YEAR’

A source with knowledge of the matter said: “After the negotiations with Gazprom, a positive point has been reached in the negotiations for the deferral of natural gas payments. To date, there have been no unpaid payments. Always paid. Currently, the $600 million payment has been officially deferred to next year. The increase in prices has been very effective in this. Gazprom also understood this. Because buying spot gas has increased costs,” she said.

“There is also the possibility that gas payments will be delayed in the coming months… That amount can exceed 3 billion dollars… It can reach 4 billion dollars. This amount depends on many factors, from the state of the world economies, to the change in oil and gas prices, to the war situation.

DÖNMEZ HAS ANNOUNCED

In his statement last week, Energy Minister Dönmez said: “An agreement has been reached with Russia and the Gazprom company on the deferral of payments above a certain number, when prices increased enormously last year.”

Stating that the postponement was done to secure the balance of payments, Dönmez did not elaborate on the matter and did not say how much of the payment was delayed.

Central Bank Governor Şahap Kavcıoğlu, in his inflation report last week, said that “regular payments have been made so far, there may be different negotiations for the future” in Turkey’s energy field.

Although the volume of natural gas imports from Russia to Turkey is shared with the public, the import value is not published as data.

Turkey’s three main gas suppliers import gas through pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. In addition, it buys liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship to more than 10 countries.

39 PERCENT GAS FROM RUSSIA

Turkey imported 39 percent of the 53.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas imported from Russia in the 12-month period to the end of February. Although most of Russia’s imports were made under long-term contracts that control the price of oil and petroleum products, some of them were imported at prices formed on the spot market, which has seen sharp increases in prices. last two years.

Russia, one of the main suppliers in the field of energy, is the largest supplier of natural gas and the second largest supplier of crude oil to Turkey.

Turkey, which imports almost all of the oil and natural gas it uses, had its highest energy import ever at $96.5 billion last year, as natural gas prices broke records and oil prices remained high. .

According to TURKSTAT and Ministry of Commerce data, 12-month energy imports have declined since February and amounted to $90.3 billion in April.

The Russian and Turkish energy ministries BOTAŞ and Gazprom did not respond to questions from Reuters on the matter at the time of writing.

The postponement of energy payments in the exchange policy, which bankers define as public control, is a factor that supports this policy, which the economic administration defines as “stable TL.”

BOTAŞ usually gets the TL it needs from the CBRT or the Treasury to buy foreign exchange on the market. For this reason, energy payments are the factor that exerts the most pressure on the budget, as well as reserves in a single item. (Reuters)