Turkish Ambassador in Ukraine cites potential danger to Istanbul's population as the reason - says Ankara would not allow passage to any Black Sea nation

Article originally appeared at Vzglyad. Translated for RI by Aleksei Shestyan

“The passage of liquefied natural gas tankers through the Bosporus is a problematic issue. First of all we are talking about security in an already contested, narrow channel. Istanbul is a highly populated city, and liquefied natural gas tankers are filled with inflammatory cargo. In the event of an accident — and these have occurred before with oil tankers — the consequences for the population of Istanbul would be devastating,” — quoted Укринформ (UkrInform)

Accidents would have devastating consequences

According to the ambassador, the decision to ban the tankers does not depend on the international situation or on the specific country that requested this passage. “We would have responded the same way to any other Black Sea country that had requested us to approve the passage of liquefied natural gas tankers through the Bosporus,” he said.

In late February, the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, who leads the Bureau of Energy Resources at the US State Department, Amos Hochstein stated that the U.S. is not yet able to directly supply gas to Ukraine. He emphasized that the U.S. does not have the required capacity.

“As for the direct supply of liquefied natural gas to Ukraine, for this you would need facilities for its reception, i.e. a re-gasification terminal or a specific installation. And this is actually where the problem lies. Because some countries do not want to allow the liquefied natural gas through the Bosphorus channel because of the potential danger,” said the representative of the State Department.

Meanwhile, according to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Ukraine’s debt for Russian natural gas rose to $2.477 bn, taking into account interest and penalties.

Earlier on Friday, Gazprom confirmed the receipt of Ukraine’s $15 million prepayment for Russian gas for March. According to Deputy Head of the Department of Information Policy of Gazprom Sergei Kupriyanov, these funds will be enough to pay for gas supplies until the end of next week.

Before that, the Ukrainian corporation Naftogaz also reported the transfer to Gazprom of $15 million prepayment for gas in March.

On March 17, a Gazprom spokesman said that Russian gas pre-paid for by the Ukrainian corporation Naftogaz should last until the March 23.

Including the latest sum, Naftogaz paid Gazprom $90 million for gas deliveries in March. According to Ukrtransgaz, in the period from 1 to 15 March, Ukraine imported 150,147,000 cubic meters of gas from Russia. The average daily consumption of Russian gas in the first 15 days of March stood at 10 million cubic meters.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchishin said that Kiev hopes that within two to three weeks the issue with the price of Russian gas for the period from April 1 will be fully resolved.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow is ready to consider providing discounts on gas for Ukraine in the framework of the existing contract with Gazprom and Naftogaz if there is an appropriate request from the Ukrainian side. Because of this, Kiev believes that Russian gas is likely to cost less in the summer than the $300 per thousand cubic meters price.