Turkmenistan, a country with one of the world’s most significant natural gas deposits, has been actively seeking new business partnerships, trade agreements, and pipeline projects due to its geographical constraints. The country’s main trading partner currently is China, but they are continually looking to expand their markets. This was a point I highlighted in a previous contribution to The Diplomat Magazine earlier this year. Recently, Turkmenistan secured a significant deal that can be seen as a major achievement.
Alparslan Bayraktar, the Turkish Minister of Energy, confirmed via a social media platform, previously known as Twitter, the signing of an agreement between the state-owned pipeline company of Turkey, BOTAS, and Turkmengaz of Turkmenistan. This agreement will facilitate the transportation of Turkmen gas to Turkey.
While the deal was under negotiation for nearly a year, it experienced a minor hurdle in September 2024. BOTAS entered into an agreement with France’s TotalEnergies to import 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of LNG from the United States, starting in 2024. As reported by David O’Byrne for Eurasianet, it was not clear how this new contract would affect Turkey’s plans to import gas from Turkmenistan.
In March 2024, a preliminary agreement was signed by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Turkmen President Serdar Berdymuhamedov, outlining a swap deal between the two countries. The Turkmen President emphasized their policy of diversifying export routes, indicating that Turkmen gas could reach Turkey and Europe through two pathways: across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan or via Iran.
Unless it is in a liquefied form, natural gas is typically transported through pipelines. Given the geographical distance and lack of a direct pipeline between Turkmenistan and Turkey, the swap deal would involve pipelines connecting Turkmenistan to Iran, and Iran to Turkey.
In February 2024, Bayraktar hailed the agreement as a crucial development in the energy cooperation between Turkey and Turkmenistan, claiming that it would enhance the region’s natural gas supply security and strengthen the strategic alliance between the two nations.
Although Bayraktar did not specifically mention Iran, Turkmenistan’s official state newspaper, Neytralny Turkmenistan, reported a conversation between Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, the former Turkmen president and current chairman of the People’s Council. Berdymuhamedov reportedly announced that the BOTAS deal includes the transit of Turkmen gas through Iran to Turkey.
The exact details about the volume, price and other clauses of the deal have not yet been disclosed. In July 2024, Bayraktar suggested that Turkmenistan could potentially export up to 2 bcm annually to Turkey using the existing infrastructure through Azerbaijan and Iran. Following this, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Ministry stated that the two countries aim to reach an annual gas trade volume of 15 bcm in the next two decades, which would necessitate the construction of a new pipeline.
