Gazprom has shelved its plans to establish a major gas distribution hub in Turkey according to Bloomberg, effectively closing a potential route back into the European energy market, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The project, once publicly championed by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in 2022, faced mounting logistical, political, and commercial hurdles.
The proposed hub aimed to redirect Russian gas exports through Turkey, which is already connected via the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines. However, internal opposition within Gazprom, Turkey’s reluctance to grant Russia marketing control, and limited pipeline capacity to EU countries like Greece and Bulgaria made the project unfeasible.
Although Turkish officials remain open to cooperating on the initiative, progress has stalled. Gazprom executives reportedly stopped internal discussions months ago. Key sticking points included Ankara’s insistence on independently managing the hub and the absence of infrastructure needed for large-scale gas storage and onward transmission to Europe.
The EU’s ongoing plan to ban Russian gas imports by 2027 further reduced the project’s viability. While the shelving of the hub won’t impact Russia’s current gas exports to Turkey — one of its largest customers — it underscores Moscow’s dwindling options to regain lost energy influence in Europe amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
(paturkey.com, June 3, 2025)
