Turkey Opens Opportunity to Supply Gas to Europe via Old Balkan Corridor

The Turkish gas transmission operator Botas has opened the possibility of supplying gas to Europe through the old Balkan corridor in reverse mode. The operator announced the opportunity to book gas supply capacities from Turkey for export through the Malkoclar-Stranja border point.

Prior to the launch of the "TurkStream," gas from Russia flowed through this point to western Turkey via Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. After "Gazprom" and "Botas" launched the "TurkStream" and constructed capacities in Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary for its land extension, Russian gas began flowing in the opposite direction through the new Malkoclar-Stranja 2 point.

Botas has offered a booking capacity of up to 10 million cubic meters per day for the first and fourth quarters of 2024, and 11 million cubic meters per day for the second and third quarters. In January of this year, Botas and the Bulgarian gas transmission operator Bulgartransgaz signed an inter-operator agreement regarding bilateral gas supplies through this point. At the same time, it is possible to supply up to 47 million cubic meters of gas per day from Bulgaria to Turkey.

According to Bulgartransgaz, Turkey's gas transportation network can provide access to natural gas from the fields of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Iran, as well as LNG from global markets through Turkish regasification terminals.