Türkiye to become global gas hub: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Ankara and Moscow are taking necessary steps to make Türkiye an energy hub, especially Thrace will become a hub for natural gas and LNG, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Dec. 16.

“We had important meetings with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. We have taken our steps. Thus, Thrace will become a hub in natural gas and energy,” Erdoğan said addressing the Silivri Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility capacity increase ceremony.

“We are working on this with our energy partners. When we add nuclear power, which is invested in with $20 billion, to the table, we will rise to a completely different level in energy,” he added.

Türkiye works hard to achieve new gains in energy, along with other areas, by expanding based on common economic interests, the president said.

Erdoğan underlined that the government aimed to reduce the country’s external dependency on primary resources from 71 percent to 13 percent by 2053.

“We aim to transform our country into a global center, where the natural gas reference price is determined, as soon as possible,” he stated.

Türkiye has 160 million tons of equivalent oil energy supply, whose financial value was nearly $51 billion in 2021, and it will reach $81 billion this year, the president noted.

“Although we have brought our domestic and renewable installed power to 65 percent, there is a serious foreign dependency on energy. We can’t raise our country to the level of development we desire without meeting the need for natural gas,” Erdoğan said.

The president recalled his meetings in Turkmenistan on Dec. 14 and said, “We held talks to carry out both natural gas and energy transfer to our country. We had a triple summit [with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan]. Thankfully, we showed our determination among us.”

Today, Türkiye is the country with the 17th largest supply in the world, with the energy service it provides to its citizens and industry, the president emphasized.

“Our investments will continue until we bring our country to the safest level in the field of natural gas exploration and operation, as well as its storage. We will continue to take every precaution to prevent the problems caused by the energy crisis in Europe in the short and medium term in our country,” he stated.

With the Century of Türkiye, the government presented the vision of the future to the nation, he said and continued, “We shared with the public our goals, which make our country competitive with the world in every field.”

“We are entering a new period in which we will take our country to the top by reaping the fruits of our labors that we have spent on century-old works that we have put in in 20 years,” Erdoğan said.

Citing Türkiye’s cooperation with Libya on maritime delimitation and hydrocarbon resources of the Mediterranean, the president said, “Behind the discomfort caused by Türkiye’s agreement with Libya lies the fact that every investment in the energy field has a century-old depth.”

Türkiye inaugurates Europe’s largest gas storage facility

The Silivri Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility, Europe’s largest with a capacity of 4.6 billion cubic meters, has started operations in Istanbul.

“The facility will be able to meet the 1-year natural gas needs of the residences in Istanbul on its own,” Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said at the facility’s capacity increase ceremony, informing that it will able to supply gas with a back generation capacity of up to 75 million cubic meters.

The electrical energy for the giant facility is provided from renewable energy as the electricity produced by the wind turbine, with a power of 4.2 megawatts, meets the daily expenditure of the facility.

Drilling was carried out in 18 wells for additional capacity of the facility, put into service in 2007. Two additional platforms were installed and the capacity increased to 4.6 billion cubic meters.

The giant facility is now in a position to meet around 8 percent of the country’s annual natural gas needs, as it is also expected to meet a quarter of the need in the winter.

“Our facility, which has become the largest in Europe in its field, is able to meet 25 percent of the gas need during the harshest winters,” Dönmez said.

Reiterating that Türkiye has seven international natural gas lines and two gas storage facilities, the minister said they are “working hard to improve it further.”

“We also held fruitful talks on new investments with countries that we did not trade in gas before. We will announce our roadmap and take action as soon as possible.”