(Source: http://promvest.info/ru/vazhno)

Turkey has sent its draft of the intergovernmental agreement on the first line of “The Turkish Stream” to the Russian Federation. But according to the interlocutors of “Kommersant” in the industry, its signature is impossible until Turkey that is experiencing a political crisis now establishes a government, which will happen no earlier than in October.

In addition, the sources of “Kommersant” do not exclude that Ankara is trying to persuade “Gazprom” to lower the price of gas before the agreement is signed. Ankara has sent its own version of the intergovernmental agreement on the first line of “The Turkish Stream” to Moscow and is now waiting for a response, according to the Energy Minister of Turkey Taner Yildiz. “We will not be those who delay the project” - he said (the quote by Reuters).

According to the source of “Kommersant” in the Energy Ministry, the document has not been received yet. The Russian party has sent its draft agreement to Turkey in the end of spring, but there is still no progress. However, apparently, we cannot expect that the proposals of Ankara can accelerate the negotiations: the parties cannot reach an agreement now for several reasons, both commercial and political. The sources of “Kommersant” in this sector note that as long as Turkey’s new government is not formed, the dialogue on the intergovernmental agreement can only be formal: Taner Yildiz made the statement against the backdrop of the most serious political crisis in Turkey over the last 13 years.

The term of forming a coalition in the Parliament following the results of the June elections expired on Monday, these elections resulted in the loss of the majority in the Majlis by the party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (see “Kommersant” as of August 19). Now the country will almost certainly hold new parliamentary elections in October. Until this moment Turkey will not have a full-fledged government which could approve the agreement on “The Turkish Stream” with Russia.

At the same time “Gazprom” connects the signature of the agreement with the granting of a discount on gas to the Turkish state company “Botas”. Without this Botas incurs losses in the sales of gas in the domestic market, which is caused by the weakening of the Turkish lira exchange rate against the US dollar. Yesterday Taner Yildiz stated that the weakening of Turkey’s currency had increased the expenditures of the country on the import of gas by 11%.