Turkey, Azerbaijan reach gas agreement

The Turkish government announced it reached a transit deal for natural gas from Azerbaijan, though an energy official provided few specifics. For nearly two years, both sides have talked about a natural gas deal that would see as much as 350 billion cubic feet of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field head through transit networks in Turkey. Azerbaijan wants to use pipelines through Turkey in order to provide a secured route to European energy markets. A proposal in September, however, envisioned upgrades to existing pipelines to get gas through Turkey from the Shah Deniz field, the Platts news service reports. The Turkish Energy Ministry announced that it reached a deal with Azerbaijan but Ankara provided few details about the measure, Platts adds. Groups managing the Nabucco, the Interconnector Turkey-Greece and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline projects have submitted proposals to Azerbaijan. All of the projects are part of the so-called Southern Corridor of transit networks for European consumers. Europe is looking to secure gas from Azerbaijan as a way to break Russia's grip on the regional energy sector. Officials in Baku said they would announce their decision soon.