Page 10 - MEOG Week 01 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Korean-flagged tanker seized by

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

IRAN IRAN’S Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps next week.
(IRGC) have seized a South-Korean flagged The tanker was en route from Al-Jubail in
tanker in the Persian Gulf allegedly for “causing Saudi Arabia on its way to South Korea for alleg-
environmental pollution,” Iranian state televi- edly breaking Iranian maritime law.
sion IRIB reported on January 4. The tanker was carrying 7,200 tonnes of
The tanker, the MT Hankuk Chemi, was ethanol, with crew members from Indonesia,
stopped by Iranian naval authorities over the Vietnam and Myanmar, all of whom have been
pollution allegation. arrested, Tasnim News Agency later reported.
It is the latest in a series of seizures by Iran’s The MT Hankuk Chemi has now been
military in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, which berthed at Bandar Abbas in Iran and the judici-
connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman ary is now reportedly dealing with the case.
and on to the Indian Ocean. The seizure of the tanker comes after Tehran
The seizure of the vessel is believed to be only in May warned the US against “piracy” of
linked to withheld proceeds, held in Woori Bank capturing its tankers on their way to Venezuela, a
in Seoul, from Iran’s sale of oil and petrochemi- country to which Iran now sends gasoline.
cals to the country. US pressure on South Korea Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the
has made it impossible for the East Asian nation Gulf in 2019 after British forces detained an
to release the funds to Tehran. Iranian tanker off the UK’s overseas territory
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung- of Gibraltar. Both vessels were released after a
wha is also expected to visit Tehran within the month-long standoff.™

SOCAR’s Turkish gas contract to expire

TURKEY THE 6.6bn cubic-metre (bcm) natural gas con- prices in Turkey’s oil-indexed natural gas con-
tract in which Azerbaijan’s state oil company tracts with six to nine-month time lags, Volkan
SOCAR supplies Turkey’s state-run pipeline Yigit of Alpus Energy told Anadolu Agency. As
operator Botas is set to expire in April 2021, Tur- a result, gas imports from Russia declined in H1
key’s government-run news service Anadolu 2020 but LNG imports from the US and imports
Agency reported on December 29. from Azerbaijan rose.
The renewal of the contract is seen as unlikely Turkish gas importers have racked up $2bn
since Turkey is already importing 6bcm of gas of debt with Russia’s Gazprom after failing to
via the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline meet payments under their take-or-pay con-
(TANAP), part of the newly operational South- tracts, sources told the Wall Street Journal on
ern Gas Corridor (SGC) that runs to Europe June 15, Also, imports from Iran declined in H1
from Azerbaijan. Additionally, a 4bcm contract 2020. Turkey stopped taking Iranian supplies for
with Russia’s Gazprom and a 1.3bcm liquefied several months after claiming that a pipeline had
natural gas (LNG) contract with Nigeria are to been damaged by a terror attack. Iran accused
expire at the end of 2021. Turkey of being slow to act in repairing it.
Russia supplies gas to Turkey via the Turk- Turkey has a gas contract with Iran that was
Stream and Blue Stream undersea pipelines signed in 1996 with an annual volume of 10bcm.
traversing the Black Sea. They have a total The volume was later reduced to 9.6bcm. The
capacity of 32 bcm per year. Other gas contracts contract will expire in July 2026.
totalling 4bcm that Botas transferred to private After Q2 oil prices passed into gas contract
sector in 2007 are also set to expire over the prices at end-June, Turkey turned to pipelines to
course of 2021. A 2.1bcm LNG contract with fulfil its take-or-pay obligations.
Qatar expired in September. The overall volume Turkey imported a record 12bcm of LNG in
of oil-indexed long-term natural gas contracts 2020. It could survive with 40bcm of long-term
that will expire in 2021 totals 15.9bcm. Turkey contracts without renewing the contracts due
has 58bcm of such contracts in total. to expire in 2021, according to Yigit. Turkey’s
Turkey turned to LNG imports in Q2 2020 natural gas contracts are based on take-or-pay
after energy prices fell to record lows during obligations with limits on exporting to third
the pandemic, given that oil prices reflect on countries, Yigit noted. As a result, Turkey pays

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