Turkey faces no gas supply problem: Minister

ISTANBUL

Thanks to recent investments in natural gas and electricity infrastructure, Turkey will not face any energy shortage in winter, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said.

“We have pipelines coming from the Black Sea, the Blue Stream, another one from Azerbaijan and a pipeline from Iran. We have added two floating LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals, called FSRUs [floating storage and regasification units],” he told private broadcaster NTV on Oct. 8.

“We have also increased underground storage capacity, which is slightly above 4 billion [cubic meters],” he added.
Turkey’s national pipeline company Botaş and private importers are in close contact with their counterparts in natural gas supplier countries Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, according to the minister.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also reassured that gas supply to Turkey will continue uninterruptedly in a recent meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Dönmez noted.

Last year, Turkey consumed 48 bcm of natural gas, Dönmez said, adding that “This year, probably natural gas consumption will be 10 bcm more than that.”

The rise in consumption has been caused by a rapid increase in industrial capacity utilization rate as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic effects.

On top of that, natural gas power generation stations have been used more than in recent years, because drought kept many hydro plants idle, according to the minister.

In recent years, Turkey has payed approximately $12 billion to pipeline exporters Russia, Azerbaijan and İran, as well as LNG suppliers including Qatar, Nigeria, Algeria and the United States.

Demand revival, restrained Russian exports, lack of LNG supply due to few new projects in recent years after 2014 price collapse, technical problems in some LNG plants and lower renewable output because of weather factors in Europe and South America, altogehter has caused a gas price increase globally.