Turkey looks to sign medium-term contract for LNG with United States, discussing review of contracts with Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran

BAKU. May 2 (Interfax) - Turkey plans to buy up to 4 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas from the United States while with Azerbaijan on a new gas purchase and sale contract are ongoing, Turkey's Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

"We are moving towards restructuring our contracts for [importing] pipeline and liquefied natural gas to ensure that 70%-80% of contracts are long-term and the rest are spot market. Our negotiations with Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran are ongoing," Bayraktar said in an interview with the Sabah newspaper.

He also said Turkey planned to enter into a contract with ExxonMobil to buy up to 4 billion cubic meters of LNG.

"As regards Exxon, we have been working with the United States on a spot basis up to now. In other words, there has been cheap LNG, and we have bought gas nearer to winter and towards its end. Now we can conclude a contract to buy LNG for 5-10 years. We are discussing an agreement for about 4 billion cubic meters, maybe less," he said.

Azerbaijan and Turkey entered into a new gas purchase and sale agreement from Stage 1 in Q3 2021 for 11 bcm of natural gas to be delivered via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline. The agreement provides for annual supplies of 3.7 bcm of gas per year from Shah Deniz Stage 1 by the end of 2024 - from Q4 2021 through Q4 2024. Deliveries under the agreement began on October 1, 2021.

Azerbaijan exported 10.257 bcm of gas from the Shah Deniz field to Turkey in 2023, up 17.8% from 2022.