Türkiye plans to set up Thrace hub within a year: Minister

ZONGULDAK

Türkiye is planning to finish all preparations to build the Thrace hub within a year, which will be an important energy center, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said.

“We aim for a hub in Thrace that will satisfy both the buyer and the seller, and that can safely transact in the market. We are in talks with both Russia and other source countries,” Dönmez told reporters at the Filyos Natural Gas Conversion Facility in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

The government is planning to bring such a market to life within a year, the minister noted, foreseeing that the hub can start to operate with a more limited number of markets “for the transition period.”

New suppliers and new contracts are needed for gas to be exported to Europe, Dönmez said. “We will present the technical and technological infrastructure to the market participants. The buyer and seller will be able to trade at any price they want.”

The minister also pointed out that the searches have intensified in places where oil and gas were previously found, adding that they will also concentrate on searches in central Anatolian, Aegean and eastern Anatolian regions.

Reminding that the ministry drilled 94 exploration wells and 56 production wells in 2022, he pledged that these numbers will reach 134 and 73 next year, respectively. “We need to increase the numbers at least twice as much.”

Meanwhile, in the Filyos Natural Gas Conversion Facility, which is still under construction, it is aimed to increase the production, which will start with 10,000 cubic meters per day in the first stage, to 40 million cubic meters by gradually increasing over four years, according to the minister.

A total of 8,000 people are working to complete the facility in the first quarter of 2023, he added.

Dönmez said last month some 80 percent of the facility was completed, reminding that the gas extracted from the Black Sea will be offered to consumers from March 2023.

The minister also elaborated on Türkiye’s cooperation with Israel on energy and said, “Türkiye is the best route for Eastern Mediterranean gas to reach the markets in the most economical and fastest way. Especially considering that such a natural gas trade center will be implemented in the near future, this will be an opportunity for them as well.”

Türkiye’s annual gas consumption has risen from 48 billion cubic meters in 2020 to 60 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach 62-63 billion this year, according to official figures.