Turkey aims to start implementing a project to turn the country into an energy hub within one year, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said, Sabah reported.

"This issue needs to be assessed separately from the legal, commercial and technical points of view," Donmez said. He specified that such an energy hub would not only depend on Russian gas, but also on diversified sources. "We are negotiating with both Russia and other countries. Mr. Putin had such a proposal. His and similar proposals have helped speed up the process."

Noting that we cannot expect this project to be implemented within three to five months, the minister said: "Our goal is to create such a market within a year. Maybe we can start with a more limited number of markets during the transition period ... Natural gas does not come only from Russia - we already have contractual cooperation with Moscow. We buy this gas because we need it. We need new contracts and new suppliers for such a market," Donmez said, pointing out that Turkey's own consumption is about 55-60 billion cubic meters.

"New contracts are needed to export and sell gas to Europe," although it is not yet known who these new suppliers and buyers will be. Such a market, as part of the construction of an energy hub, would give buyers the opportunity to choose which supplier they would like to buy their gas from.