Turkey begins partially paying for Russian gas in rubles, wants to start discussing gas hub this winter

MOSCOW. Nov 8 (Interfax) - Turkey has begun partially paying for Russian gas supplies in rubles, and the process should accelerate in the coming months, the Gunes news agency has reported, quoting Turkey's Energy Minister Fatih Donmez from an interview with the country's TRT Haber TV channel.

"For nearly five to six years, both leaders have expressed the intention to pave the way for trading in national currencies. The process has currently accelerated slightly, and an agreement was reached at our last meeting. Some technical work of course needs to be done regarding this. Trading in rubles has begun partially," Donmez said.

"We will see this a little more intensively in the coming months. There is consensus on the issue on both sides. The fact that this is happening with national currencies will of course also reduce the countries' needs for other foreign currencies," Turkey's energy minister added.

When speaking about the prospects for creating a gas hub in Turkey, Donmez said that the hub would allow for setting considerably more favorable and competitive gas prices in order to meet the needs of Europe, because the gas resources of several countries would be concentrated at the hub compared to Russia directly supplying one third of the gas consumed by Europe.

For example, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran currently supply gas to Turkey, and research is underway in Iraq.