Energy watchdog predicts 52.02 bcm gas consumption in 2020

İZMİR-Anadolu Agency

Turkey's energy watchdog estimates the consumption of 52.02 billion standard cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in Turkey in 2020, according to an official gazette announcement on Jan. 29.

EMRA's natural gas consumption estimation was nearly 52.13 bcm for 2019 but the authority has not yet announced the actual consumption.

The country consumed around 49.32 bcm of natural gas in 2018, according to EMRA's 2018 Natural Gas Market Report, a rate below the 54.52 bcm forecast for that year.

Turkey aims to decrease its dependence on imported products including oil and gas in energy supply, while increasing the share of local and renewable sources in its energy mix. With that aim, the country last year saw the share of local and renewable resources in electricity production amounted to 62 percent.

Natural gas imports down 17 pct

In the meantime, EMRA on Jan. 29 announced that Turkey's natural gas imports decreased by around 17 percent in November 2019 compared to the same month of 2018.

Natural gas imports decreased to 3.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) in November last year, from 4.69 bcm for the same month of 2018, EMRA said in its monthly natural gas market report.

The country imported 2.81 bcm of natural gas via pipeline, while 1.87 bcm was purchased as LNG in November 2019, the data showed.

Turkey's total gas consumption decreased by 15.8 percent to approximately 3.44 bcm in November 2019, from around 4.09 bcm in November 2018.

The amount of natural gas in storage increased by approximately 2.6 percent to 3.45 bcm in November last year, from 3.36 bcm in November of the previous year.

Gas production decreased by around 2.8 percent to 37.6 bcm from 38.7 bcm over the same period.