Turkey and Russia can resolve gas dispute before arbitration, claim Russians

Turkey and Russia can solve the natural gas discount dispute before a ruling in the arbitration case, the Russian state’s Gazprom Company said on Tuesday.

“Turkey’s decision to take the Russian gas price dispute to arbitration is an option within the framework of the contracts,” explained company spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov. “It is a normal process and either the arbitration court will decide or we will solve the problem beforehand.”

Gazprom announced a 6 per cent discount on natural gas purchases from Turkey last December. However, Turkey demanded a further decrease in prices which prompted Russia to raise the discount rate to 10.25 per cent, although the new price was never implemented by Turkish state-owned pipeline company BOTAS and its Russian partner in the deal.

Turkey has used its right to take the case to the International Arbitration Court, based on a clause in the agreement with Gazprom. Energy Minister Ali Riza Alaboyun announced that the dispute between was lodged with the court on Monday.