Turkey needs to invest $120 billion in energy until 2023, says Erdoğan

ANKARA

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There has been a rapid increase in Turkey’s energy consumption, and the country needs to invest around $120 billion in energy projects by 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 20.

“Turkey has grown tremendously for the last 12 years. This has doubled our energy consumption. We’ll be doubling our energy consumption by 2023. We need to increase our energy consumption rapidly. We need to invest $120 billion in energy projects by 2023,” Erdoğan said at the Energy Markets Summit, organized by the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA), according to Reuters.

He noted that the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline has again become active, while ground has again been broken for the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku. He also referred to the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Project (TANAP), which will carry Azeri gas to European markets via Turkey, as an "exciting project."

“We are very determined to develop nuclear energy in Turkey as well as renewable energy,” Erdoğan added.

Meanwhile, the president questioned why the energy chapter of the EU accession negotiations has yet to be opened.

“We have questioned what was missing. They had no answer. We asked where we were stuck. They could not answer these questions, just as they could not do regarding other chapters. They insisted on the Nabucco project, but that project has failed. Here we all have TANAP. We hope that the TANAP’s gas will flow soon," he said.

"Honesty is a must. We can start the process in two-three months when the EU says it is ready to open any chapter to negotiate with us,” Erdoğan added.

Turkey’s current natural gas and electricity prices are the cheapest among the 28 EU countries and are at the same levels as in 2008, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said at the same meeting, reported by Anadolu Agency.

Yıldız said his ministry was prioritizing renewable resources to decrease natural gas imports, adding that Turkey aims to add 110,000 megawatts to its power capacity by 2023 and aims to meet 30 percent of its power from renewable resources.

He said Turkey paid $850 million less for its annual energy imports in 2014 because of the increase in power generated by renewable energy.

“Two months ago, for the first time, Turkey was able to meet 10 percent of its daily energy output from wind power for one day,” Yıldız added.

Meanwhile, EMRA head Mustafa Yılmaz said there were 615 power generation companies, 160 suppliers and more than 1 million eligible consumers in Turkey, adding that the country’s natural gas consumption had increased by three times to 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) over the last decade.

“Some 54 percent of gas is used for industrial purposes and heating,” Yılmaz said.

A total of 71 cities have access to natural gas at the moment and this high level of access has been achieved with investments worth around $12 billion over the last decade, he added.