Turkey’s state-owned pipeline operator BOTAŞ has signed a 20-year liquefied natural gas supply agreement with Geneva-based energy trader Mercuria, one of the world’s leading independent energy and commodity groups, covering the equivalent of about 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Mercuria said on its website.
The deal was signed in New York on Tuesday during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly, with Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, BOTAŞ Chairman and CEO Abdulvahit Fidan and Mercuria President and co-founder Daniel Jaeggi in attendance. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2026 and continue through the end of 2045.
Cumhurbaşkanımız Sayın @RTErdogan ile ABD Başkanı Sayın Donald Trump’ın Beyaz Saray görüşmesinde gündeme gelecek konulardan biri olacak doğal gaz ticaretinde önemli bir adım daha attık.
Millî şirketimiz BOTAŞ ile dünyanın önde gelen enerji gruplarından Mercuria arasında 20 yıla… pic.twitter.com/PkSmqNtWYR
— Alparslan Bayraktar (@aBayraktar1) September 24, 2025
Under the agreement, BOTAŞ will receive about 4 bcm of gas-equivalent LNG annually, mainly during the winter. Cargoes will be sourced from US loading ports on a free-on-board basis — meaning the buyer arranges shipping — and from regasification terminals in Turkey, Europe and North Africa under delivered ex-ship terms, where the seller delivers to the buyer’s port.
Bayraktar said the agreement will strengthen BOTAŞ’s role in the global LNG market and contribute to Turkey’s long-term energy security, price stability and diversification goals. He added that the deal will also support Ankara’s ambition to boost bilateral trade volume with the United States to $100 billion.
The 70 bcm contract reveals Turkey’s accelerated shift toward LNG as part of its diversification efforts. LNG accounted for 32 percent of Turkey’s gas imports in the first half of 2025, up from 28 percent a year earlier, with 9.47 bcm imported during the period, according to official trade data.
Earlier this month BOTAŞ signed separate supply deals totaling more than 15 bcm with Shell, BP and Eni during the Gastech 2025 forum in Milan.
Turkey, which relies heavily on energy imports, recorded an annual energy deficit of $49.2 billion in July, out of total imports worth $64.9 billion, government statistics show. Analysts say long-term LNG contracts are critical to narrowing the current account gap.
Industry sources note that such agreements coincide with the approaching expiration of Turkey’s “take-or-pay” pipeline contracts with Russia and Iran in 2026, a development that reveals the United States’ growing share in Turkey’s energy imports and Europe’s search for alternatives to Russian gas.
The total value of the Mercuria deal is estimated to exceed $43 billion over its lifetime, with annual LNG purchases worth about $2.1 billion.
Energy markets expert Ali Arif Aktürk cautioned on social media platform X that the contract, likely indexed to the US Henry Hub natural gas benchmark, will require BOTAŞ to manage both price and foreign exchange risks.
To mitigate those risks, he argued, the company must strengthen its organizational capacity by hiring qualified staff and establishing robust treasury, trading and back-office structures.
Attempting such trade without this infrastructure would be “suicidal,” he said, adding that creating a dedicated subsidiary, “BOTAŞ Trading,” would be a reasonable step.