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Turkey鈥檚 electricity sector cannot become more competitive without liberalization and听maintaining investors' interest听in its natural gas sector, Peter Styles,听a member of the board at The European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) said.
Styles told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview on Monday that the electricity producers in Turkey who rely on gas as an import fuel are exposed to the effects of gas price fluctuation.
He said: 鈥淭urkish government exerts efforts to liberalize its natural gas market and tries to withdraw from its dominant role as the main player in Turkey鈥檚 gas sector.鈥�
However Styles added that the structure of the wholesale market still has to undergo development.
Responding to a question on a potential gas shortage this winter due to the deepening crisis between Russia 鈥� Ukraine, Styles said EFET is involved in discussions with European Commission and the member European Union (EU) governments about possible measures to deal with such shortage.
Russia鈥檚 state-run natural gas giant Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in June, due to Ukraine not being able to pay its gas bills. On the other hand, the EU is concerned that Ukraine 鈥榤ight鈥� take from the Russian gas, the gas destined for Europe. Gazprom supplies one third of EU鈥檚 gas, half of which comes via Ukraine.
鈥淚 think Gazprom, with commercial interests in Europe and also intensions of extending听its business in Europe would be reluctant to cut off supplies without good contractual reason for doing so,鈥� Styles said.
The expert stressed that EFET has been urging the EU and member state governments not to take measures which would stop the market working in Europe.
鈥淭his would be counterproductive,鈥� he said, adding that, 鈥淭he EU needs to rely on market mechanisms to adjust to any gas shortages.鈥�
The EU announced restrictions to Russia's three biggest oil companies- Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft, and banned them from raising long-term capital from European financial markets on 12 September, 2014.
By E. Gurkan Abay & Ata Ufuk Seker
Anadolu Agency
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