United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG)

[ogbull]

Good News for US natgas exports!

The US and Turkey trying to set up a deal to import LNG. Turkey has big natgas demand but it had a contract with Gazprom that was gonna be gard to break. Now Russia give Turkey solid reason to resend contract. They are cutting Turkey’s natural gas supply, like it has done in Ukraine 2006.

Turkey is an 80-million strong market and Gazprom’s second biggest market, with considerable growth potential.

In December 2015, Gazprom demanded a price premium for Turkey’s supply. By February, Gazprom disrupted deliveries to independent Turkish gas traders, reducing supply by 50%. Turkey depends on Russia for 55% of its natural gas supply.

The Turkish dependence on Russian supply is more pronounced due to small storage facilities in the country.

This is the latest in a series of standoffs between Moscow and Ankara, following the downing of a SU-24 bomber in Syria in November 2015. Since, Moscow has kicked off a campaign against Turkey as a tourist destination, closed the Russian market for Turkish agricultural products and construction companies, cancelled the construction of a nuclear plant, and continue now with the disruption of natural gas supplies.

Currently, the state natural gas distributor Botas is in arbitration with Gazprom for the Russian company’s unilateral decision to reduce supply volumes. Meanwhile, Turkey is keeping its cool in the standoff, given an unusually hot winter. However, Ankara is now considering turning to Azeri supply and to the USA.

The standoff is also likely to kill the Turkish Stream project agreed upon Gazprom and Turkish in the summer of 2015.