Natural gas imports down 2 percent in April

ANKARA

Türkiye imported 3.98 billion cubic meters of natural gas in April, down 2.1 percent from the same month of 2022, data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) have shown.

Gas import via pipelines fell nearly 5 percent to 3.28 billion cubic meters, while the country’s LNG purchase increased almost 14 percent from April last year to 698,000 cubic meters.

Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas. However, Türkiye’s gas imports from Russia dropped 8.5 percent year-on-year, but imports from Azerbaijan leaped 22 percent annually to 893,000 cubic meters.

Gas inflow from Iran grew 3.5 percent to 867,000 cubic meters. Imports from the U.S. plunged more than 46 percent to 132,000 cubic meters.

Türkiye’s total natural gas consumption fell 22.3 percent in April compared with the same month of 2022 to 3.97 billion cubic meters.

Households consumed 1.58 billion cubic meters of gas in the month, down 32 percent year-on-year. The energy sector’s consumption was down 3.7 percent to 102,000 cubic meters, while the industry sector reduced its consumption by 20 percent to 932,000 cubic meters.

In the first four months of 2023, Türkiye consumed around 22 billion cubic meters of gas, some 14 percent less than a year ago.

Imports amounted to 20.6 billion cubic meters, falling by 11.4 percent compared with January-April last year. Local natural gas production increased 23 percent to 147,000 cubic meters.

The EPDK separately reported that crude oil imports dropped nearly 34 percent on an annual basis to around 2 billion tons in April, while diesel products imports leaped 61 percent from April 2022 to 1.06 billion tons.

Total oil product sales in the country amounted to 2.32 billion tons in the month, declining 3.8 percent from a year ago, the authority’s monthly report showed.