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A very interesting article -

First the curse of "take or pay" contracts os the kiss of death for attracting any outside investment.

Storage of excess gas is out of the question - Turkey has no "cold weather urban market" - homes, business's etg. as does the US that assures a draw down of the storage capacity at a higer rate that what it was originally purchased.

A note about the Russian Gas exports to the EU - in the early 70's while we were struggling to build TAPS - the Alaskan 48" pipeline - the Russians simultaneously built 5-60" gas pipelines from a single field in Northwestern Russian (with Trillions of cubic feet of reserves. Interesting here is that in the early 70's the US steel industry had no capability for rolling 48" pipe so it was purchased from Japan - transported flat and rolled here).

The point being is that the EU is locked into LOOOOng term contracts for Russian gas - it has no need for Turkish (actually Iranian gas). The take or pay contract sucks and (Lon) Cheneys private agreement to indemnify the US majors for any and all transportation interruptions is absolutely crazy.

I appreciate the article - though technical I think that even this audience can get the gist of the Turkish/US quandry.

Take this to the bank - When Caspian production does come to market it will come through Iran or not at all and you can bet the Saudi Royal Family's bank on it.