Turkey: gas licence speaks volumes about Kurdish relations | beyondbrics

Turkey: gas licence speaks volumes about Kurdish relations | beyondbrics:

"

Turkey’s energy market regulator EPDK this week awarded Turkish construction group Siyah Kalem a license to import gas from Iraq 18 months on from the company’s initial application.

The volumes are small – rising to a maximum of 3.2bn cu m per yr over the first 20 years out of a total 26 – but the fact it has been awarded at all speaks volumes about the state of relations between Turkey and Iraq, and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq.

The long delay in processing the license application follows the insistence by Turkish officials initially that Siyah Kalem should have concluded a signed and sealed contract with a gas supplier. Subsequently Ankara announced that the license would be also depended on the approval of Iraqi central government in Baghdad."

'via Blog this'