Turkey eyes ExxonMobil LNG as country reduces dependence on Russian gas

Jack Dutton

Apr 29, 2024

The Maiden's Tower is pictured. — The Maiden's Tower is pictured as the vessel Pioneering Spirit of Swiss offshore service provider Allseas passes through the Bosporus toward the Mediterranean from the Black Sea following the completion of Line 1 of Gazprom's TurkStream gas pipeline in the Black Sea, connecting Russia and Turkey, in Istanbul, on May 2, 2018. — YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey is in talks for a multimillion-dollar deal to buy liquified natural gas (LNG) from US energy major ExxonMobil, as Ankara moves to wean the country off of its dependence on Russian energy amid the Ukraine war.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the Financial Times in an interview published Sunday that his country, which imports almost all of its natural gas, is looking to build a “new supply portfolio” that will make it less reliant on any single country or company. According to the US Energy Information Administration, in 2022, Russia accounted for 39% of Turkey's natural gas imports, followed by Iran (17%), Azerbaijan (16%) and the United States (10%). To a lesser extent, Turkey also imports LNG from Algeria, Nigeria, Qatar and the United States.

The long-term deal being discussed with Exxon would give Turkey up to 2.5 million metric tons of LNG a year, the minister said. The Financial Times reported that this amount would be enough to have covered around 7% of Turkey’s 2023 natural gas consumption. Bayraktar said that the agreement could last for 10 years and the commercial terms, including price, were still being negotiated.

“For security of supply, we need to get gas from somewhere. It could be from Russia, it could be from Azerbaijan, it could be Iran or LNG options,” Bayraktar told the broadsheet. "We need to look at the competitiveness edge — which gas is cheaper?”