Page 11 - AfrOil Week 05 2023

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Nigeria LNG is one of Turkey’s outside gas suppliers (Photo: NLNG)

Turkey is almost entirely dependent on imports price-setting.
for gas, but gas supplies from Russia, Azerbaijan However, if any such hub is set up in Turkey
and Iran, as well as LNG imports from Qatar, the there will be concerns among those applying
US, Nigeria and Algeria enter its pipelines and Ukraine war sanctions to Russian gas supplies
ports, thus Ankara has ambitions of the country that there could be disguised Russian gas ship-
becoming a gas supply hub. ments transiting out of the hub to their markets.
In October, Russia’s President Vladimir “Our target is to bring together supplier and
Putin proposed setting up just such a gas hub consumer countries and become the gas-trad-
in Turkey following mysterious explosions that ing centre where the benchmark price of gas is
severely damaged Russia’s Nord Stream gas set,” Reuters reported Donmez as saying after
pipelines under the Baltic Sea. He said the hub he separately announced a 10-year gas deal with
could benefit from having the right to engage in Oman. ™

Libya’s $8bn oil deal with Eni opens new

fronts in ongoing internal political battles

LIBYA LIBYAN Oil Minister Mohamed Oun has criti-
cised an $8bn deal signed between National Oil
Corp. (NOC) and the Italian energy group Eni
over the weekend, calling it “illegal” and claim-
ing that NOC did not consult with his ministry,
according to a statement issued on January 29.
Oun said the deal lacked equality between
Libya and Italy, arguing that Eni should shoul-
der more of the investment costs, which are
currently spilt equally between NOC and the
Italian company. He said the deal is an explicit
and clear violation of local law and will prove
disadvantageous.
The oil minister’s objection to the deal
came hours after the head of the parallel, east-
ern-based government Fathi Bashagha, dis-
missed the agreement. He considered any GNU defends the deal (Image: Twitter/@pm_govly_en)
agreement regarding natural gas fields in Melli-
tah as illegal, promising that he would challenge National Army (LNA).
it before the local judiciary. The $8bn deal, aimed at boosting produc-
Bashagha was appointed by the east- tion and exports to Europe, was signed against
ern-based House of Representatives (HoR), a the backdrop of a trip by Italian Prime Minister
legislature with ties to Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan Giorgia Meloni to Tripoli.

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