Turkey oil imports rise 4 percent in first quarter

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s crude oil imports have increased by nearly four percent in the first quarter of this year according to a report from the government’s energy market regulator.

Turkey imported 3.84 million tons of crude oil in the period between January-March of 2014, an increase of 3.9 percent over the same period from last year, costing around $14 billion, figures released by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) showed.

Ankara imported a total of 18.5 million tons of crude oil in 2013.

Turkey meets around 90 percent of its oil needs from foreign resources and crude oil imports are expected to double over the next decade. The majority of Turkey’s crude oil imports come from Iran, which supplies 35 percent of the country’s demand.

In March, 477.9 thousand tons of crude oil – out of a total of 1.2 million tons – was from Iran, followed by 290.2 thousand tons from Iraq and 176.5 thousand tons from Nigeria.

Turkey consumed 45.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2012 and 47 billion cubic meters in 2013.
Turkey’s energy import bill decreased by 7 percent in 2012, falling to $55.9 billion from $60.1 billion the previous year. Turkey mulls feeding major portion of its soaring energy need by weighing on nuclear power plants. Currently, there are two plant plans on the pipeline and a third one is on the cards.