Sour relations between Turkish BOTAS and Russian Gazprom

Natural Gas Talks With Russia Resumed

Zaman Ankara, TURKEY, August 27, 2003

Sour relations because of a price disagreement between BOTAS, the state-owned Turkish petroleum pipeline, and Russian company Gazexport have softened recently after a basis for agreement was reached last week. Discussions over technical details took place today between BOTAS representatives and the group coming from Russia.

The disagreement arose after a pricing formula in the Blue Stream agreement was supposedly incorrectly written. The incorrect formula would have cost BOTAS a lot more money but has since been reviewed and negotiations have resumed.

Russian natural gas producer Gazprom's marketing arm Gazexport has demanded that the price structure for natural gas sales to Turkey incorporate a formula that would link increases and decreases to international petrol prices.

The disagreement occurred when BOTAS was asked to buy the gas at a higher price than intended. Gazprom company officials pointed out that the formula of all other agreements was the same; only in this agreement was the formula different. Gazprom stated that it was only a written mistake and should be same as the others. BOTAS pointed out that the formula protects the Russian company from a decline in international prices.

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printed from Sour relations between Turkish BOTAS and Russian Gazprom on 2004-06-03 06:47:55