Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that Turkmenistan will begin supplying natural gas to Turkey through pipelines under the Caspian Sea within the next five years. The announcement was made during the Natural Resources Summit in Istanbul, as reported by Turkmenistan’s Transport and Communications Agency and cited by Business Turkmenistan.
Erdoğan stated that since March 2025, Turkmen gas has already been reaching Turkey via Iran, with approximately 250 million cubic meters delivered so far. By the end of the year, that volume is expected to rise to 1.3 billion cubic meters.
He emphasized that expanding energy cooperation with Turkmenistan remains a strategic priority for Ankara. A bilateral agreement was signed on February 10, 2025, following high-level talks.
The long-discussed trans-Caspian pipeline project, once stalled due to political and environmental concerns, now appears to be gaining traction. If realized, it would allow direct exports of Turkmen gas to Turkey and potentially to European markets.
Earlier this year, The Times of Central Asia reported that methane emissions could pose a challenge for Turkmenistan’s ambition to export gas to Europe. A February 2025 report from the U.S. Department of Energy noted that Turkmenistan holds the world’s fifth-largest natural gas reserves, estimated at 400 trillion cubic feet and produced 3.0 trillion cubic feet of dry gas in 2023, marking a record high since tracking began in 1992.
