Türkiye investing in energy infrastructure: Minister

HOUSTON

Türkiye has been making major investments in natural gas infrastructure, underground storage and gasification units in the country, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

“Our entire supply portfolio ranges from long-term pipeline gas contracts to more flexible long-term energy contracts,” Bayraktar said on Sept. 17 speaking at a ministers’ panel at the Gastech 2024 energy forum in Houston, Texas.

“So, we are making a big difference in this market and bringing more competitive solutions to the market with these infrastructure investments,” he added.

Listing three challenges facing Türkiye in the energy sector, Bayraktar said the first is the increasing demand for energy from households to industry in the country.

Noting that two-thirds of the country's primary energy is imported, Bayraktar said that Türkiye is dependent on energy imports.

Referring to the country's energy transformation journey, the minister pointed out that Türkiye wants to become a carbon neutral economy, adding that the government has developed policies to overcome these three challenges.

"We are developing policies to meet global demand, to reduce dependency and to address the energy transition. So, we are in a position where we cannot say no to alternative energy solutions or sources coming from any source,” he noted.

Bayraktar said that a long-term and ambitious program has been developed in this context, recalling that a gas field in the Black Sea region was identified in 2020.

He pointed out that 2.6 million households have been supplied with natural gas in less than four years, adding that that there is a great potential to increase this number.

“At the same time, we are investing heavily in our gas infrastructure, underground storage and gasification facilities,” Bayraktar said.

“We have almost quintupled our gasification capacity and now our entire supply portfolio is shifting from long-term pipeline gas contracts to more flexible long-term energy contracts. So, we are making a big difference in this market and bringing more competitive solutions to the market with this infrastructure investment.”

Bayraktar said that there is an ambitious program to increase Türkiye’s renewable energy generation capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2035 and emphasized the importance placed on nuclear energy.

Referring to various energy cooperations from the Middle East to Europe, Bayraktar pointed out that Türkiye plays an important role in Europe's supply security.

Natural gas is very important not only for Türkiye but also for the region, Bayraktar noted.

"We have started to produce our own gas, but we have also invested heavily in international projects with pipelines and in increasing regasification capacity,” he said.

“Now we can bring more than we need.”

Pointing out that Türkiye is the fourth largest gas market in Europe with 50 billion cubic meters, Bayraktar said that with infrastructure, neighboring countries and reliable suppliers from other parts of the world, almost 75 billion cubic meters of gas could be brought to the Turkish market.

The minister said the additional 25 billion cubic meters could be exported to European markets, adding that if the right balance is established between producing, transporting and consuming countries, a long-term and successful cooperation can be achieved.