Page 18 - MEOG Week 24

MEOG n e W s I n B r I e F MEOG

currency is tumbling to the dollar, reaching in April. The vote has twice been delayed since pipeline.
unprecedented lows while food prices have because of restrictions imposed to combat the The PKK has attacked the pipeline several
skyrocketed. spread of the novel coronavirus in Syria. previous occasions, with subsequent repairs
The economic meltdown comes ahead of FranCe 24 then completed within a few days. The
looming new US sanctions against any entity failure to repair the pipeline promptly on this
or country that do business with the Syrian occasion has sparked speculation that Turkey
government. The new sanctions are due to G as is stalling repairs to pressure Iran to improve
take effect in the second half of June but they terms under which Turkey imports gas. State
have shaken the already teetering economy. Iran says gas flows to gas importer Botas, meanwhile, has been
The hardships have also sparked importing cheap spot LNG cargoes in place of
unprecedented protests in areas controlled by Turkey will resume by end Iranian and Russian gas.
the Assad government. hundreds of protesters Turkey’s deputy energy minister Alparslan
in the southern Sweida province have taken June Bayraktar told a conference in Istanbul in
to the streets in the last four days, decrying February that Turkey planned to use the
the rising cost of living and chanting against Iranian gas exports to Turkey will resume availability of cheap spot LNG to persuade its
Assad, in scenes reminiscent of the early days by the end of June, Iranian foreign minister long-term gas suppliers to lower their prices,
of anti-government protests that erupted in Mohammad Javad Zarif said on June 15 at a S&P Global Platts reported. Ten days ago
2011. press conference in Istanbul held jointly with Iran’s NIGC said Tehran rejected Ankara’s
The peaceful 2011 protests were met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. claim that the explosion was a force majeure
with a brutal government crackdown and Zarif said that he had received assurances event. The company said it expected gas flow
turned into a civil war that has devastated that repairs to the pipeline – closed since to be restarted on June 21 at the earliest.
the country. More than 400,000 have been March 31 after an explosion said by Turkish Turkey imports gas from Iran under an
killed, millions displaced and large parts of officials to be the result of a sabotage attack agreement signed in 1996 for up to 10 bcm/
the country remain outside of government by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – year until July 2026. It commenced in 2001
control. The parliamentary elections, would be finished and that gas flows would be and was later reduced to 9.6 bcm/year.
scheduled for next month, were originally due reinstated. Cavusoglu did not comment on the Bne

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