ANKARA
Turkey does not expect any shortages in natural gas supplies from Russia’s Gazprom, but the gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine must be solved before autumn, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Tuesday.
Russia halted natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Monday, demanding that Ukraine pay in advance for the gas it imports from Moscow, as a deadline for an agreement on EU-brokered talks expired.
“Russia’s decision to halt gas supplies to Ukraine does not mean it will halt its supplies to Europe or to Turkey,” Yildiz said during a press conference in Ankara, adding that “this dispute must be solved before September, to maximize the energy stability of Ukraine and Eastern Europe”.
Yildiz added that the crisis between Ukraine and Russia would possibly affect the the West Stream pipeline in the long term, which currently supplies 12.5 percent of Turkey's natural gas from Russia through Ukraine. However, Yildiz said, Turkey does not foresee such a problem.
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