Turkey shows Europe its gas hand

Country offers to boost gas exports to Europe to 10bcm/yr, but serious questions remain

Turkey could increase gas exports to Europe to as much as 10bcm/yr, Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said. Bayraktar's suggestion came with the twin caveats that investments would need to be made to expand the capacity of Turkey's existing pipeline interconnections with Greece and Bulgaria, and perhaps—more significantly—that Europe would need to show "political will and commitment".  It is an offer which—given Europe's pressing need to find new sources of gas in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions—is bound to receive serious consideration both by European gas buyers and Brussels. However, Turkey is not a net gas producer, it is a major import