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have been extended by 10 days. A Turkish energy source told Reuters that Botas is expected to buy more LNG in the spot market, while the Blue Stream maintenance allowed the company to limit purchases from Gazprom.
“For Botas it makes sense to reduce pipeline imports from Russia and substitute this with spot LNG supplies as LNG is currently much cheaper,” Carlos Torres Diaz, head of gas markets at Oslo-based energy consultancy Rystad Energy, was quoted as saying by the news service.
He estimated that the price for pipeline imports from Russia to Turkey would stand at around $6.5 per million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) in the second quarter compared to $1.5-2 per MMBtu for spot LNG deliveries.
“A fall [in gas sales to Turkey] will be even deeper in the second quarter,” a Gazprom source told Reuters, adding that overall shipments to Europe, including Turkey, were down 19.2% y/y to 39.62 bcm in the first quarter.
Turkey is dragging its feet on moving to repair a cross-border gas pipeline damaged by an explosion in late March​, meaning Iranian gas exports still cannot flow to the country, Iran’s Press TV ​reported​ on May 13.
The pipeline has been blown up several times by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but after previous attacks it was usually quickly repaired, the news service said. An official at the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) was quoted by the Iranian Fars news agency as saying that since the latest explosion, on March 31, Turkey had not responded to Iranian requests. Moreover, Turkey’s representative at the Bazargan gas transmission station had left his post due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the NIGC official, Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, was also cited as saying, adding that the type of repairs requested typically took three to seven days.
Fars speculated that the Turkish state pipeline operator Botas was unwilling to repair the damaged pipeline. The news agency added that the situation might be due to efforts by the US to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Turkey.
“In recent months, Turkey has imported as much LNG from the United States as gas imports from Iran,” Ali Nasr, an energy expert, told Fars.
Turkey remains heavily dependent on natural gas imports via pipeline from Russia. But lately, given the cheaper prices available on LNG, it has been increasing LNG purchases from both Russia and Azerbaijan as well.
Iran annually sells around 10bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Turkey under a 25-year supply deal signed in 1996.
9.2.2 ​Automotive corporate news
Ford Otosan and Oyak Renault, two of Turkey’s largest carmakers, resumed production on April 27​.
Hyundai Assan had already recommenced production and two other large automakers, Tofas and Toyota, resumed operations on May 4 and May 11, respectively​.
These five companies together accounted for nearly 100% of Turkey’s auto exports to foreign markets last year. Their combined shipments stood at 1.7mn units.
On April 29​, ​Tofas cut its export target for 2020 to 110,000-140,000 units from the previously stated 170-190,000 and its domestic sales target to 72,000-78,000 units from the former objective of 78,000-84,000.
59​ TURKEY Country Report​ June 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com