Turkey and Russia have resumed talks on proposed gas hub, says Turkish minister

Turkey has resumed talks with Russia on building a natural gas hub in Turkey, Russia’s state-affiliated TASS news agency reported on Friday, citing Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar.

“Since [Russia] suggested this gas trading platform to us, an earthquake took place as well as the elections. So we had something of a pause, but we are now negotiating again,” he said.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the gas hub project had been delayed due to disagreements between Moscow and Ankara over who would ultimately be “in charge” of the facility.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov first announced a potential delay to the project in February, attributing it to the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey earlier that month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed creating a storage hub in Turkey from which Russian natural gas could be exported to Europe in October 2022, shortly after the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany were blown up.