Russia and Turkey ink pipeline agreement, end gas dispute

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state gas giant Gazprom said that it had signed a protocol with the Turkish government on a planned gas pipeline and agreed with Turkish firm Botas to end an arbitration dispute over the terms of gas supplies. The protocol concerned the land-based part of the transit leg of the TurkStream gas pipeline, which Gazprom said meant that work to implement it could now begin. Turkey had delayed issuing a permit for the Russian company to start building the land-based parts of the pipeline which, if completed, would allow Moscow to reduce its reliance on Ukraine as a transit route for its gas supplies to Europe. A source said in February the permit problem might be related to talks between Gazprom and Botas about a possible discount for Russian gas. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that Turkey and Russia had reached a retroactive agreement for a 10.25 percent discount on the natural gas Ankara buys from Moscow. Gazprom said in the statement, without elaborating, that the dispute with Botas would be settled out of court.