Natural gas imports down nearly 8 pct last year

ANKARA

Türkiye imported a total of 50.48 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas last year, down 7.64 percent from 2022, according to the data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).

Consumption declined 5.5 percent to 50bcn, while the country’s natural gas production soared 113 percent to 807 million cubic meters. Natural gas exports climbed 54 percent to 869 million cubic meters.

In the final month of 2023, the country’s gas imports rose 4.4 percent to 6.06 bcm, EPDK’s monthly report showed.

Liquified natural gas (LNG) imports declined 3.4 percent to 2.3 bcm, while imports via pipelines increased 9.8 percent to 3.8 bcm.

Türkiye bought more than 2bcm of natural gas from Russia in December, pointing to a 4 percent increase from a year ago. The U.S. was the second largest supplier as Türkiye’s LNG imports from this country leaped 63.6 percent to 1.18bcm.

Türkiye’s LNG imports from Brazil also showed a 100 percent year-on-year increase to 186 million cubic meters, while LNG purchases from Algeria declined 15 percent to 642 million cubic meters.

Natural gas imports via pipelines from Iran declined 2.4 percent in December 2023 from a year ago to 782 million cubic meters.

Imports from Azerbaijan rose 23 percent on an annual basis to more than 962 million cubic meters.

EPDK also reported that Türkiye’s oil imports increased by 15.7 percent in December compared to the same month of 2022 to 4.34 million tons.

Crude oil imports soared 28.1 percent year-on-year to 2.9 million tons, while diesel products imports declined 6.5 percent to 1.02 million tons.