Turkey gets waiver extension from U.S. for gas payments to Russia, Turkish source says

ISTANBUL, March 20 (Reuters) - Turkey has received an extension from the United States to a waiver for gas payments to Russia, a Turkish source said on Thursday, adding that the extension would be valid until May.

In November, Washington imposed new sanctions over the Ukraine conflict on Russia's Gazprombank, one of the country's largest banks which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe. Turkey, along with Hungary and Slovakia received a U.S. waiver in December.

The extension was first reported by Bloomberg earlier on Thursday. Turkey's energy ministry declined to comment, while Turkey's Treasury was not immediately available for comment.

Russia provides more than 40% of Turkey's gas imports. Turkey's gas imports were up 1% last year at 51.7 bcm, with imports of Russian gas were down 2% at 21.6 bcm.