Turkey's Gas Demand to Hit 50bn m³ in 2017

Turkey's gas demand could rise 8% this year to reach 50bn m³, the Natural Gas Distribution Companies Association (Gazbir) said August 29. The demand for the extra gas was the result of cold weather and more gas-fired power plants, according to the association. Gazbir said last year Turkey consumed 46.3bn m³ of natural gas.

Turkey is almost entirely dependent on imports and has taken more gas from Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan, statistics show. Overall gas import for the first half of the year was 27.78bn m³, mainly delivered by pipelines (22.27bn m³) while 5.51bn m³ came as LNG.

Russia delivered about 17.5bn m³  of gas to Turkey, the Russian energy minister Alexander Novak told an international exhibition in Izmir August 18. According to Russia's  monopoly Gazprom, Russia increased gas supplies to Turkey by 16% compared with the same period of last year.

Iran exported 4,7bn m³ of gas to Turkey in the first half of the year increasing supply by about 18% compared with the first half of last year. Iran is the second largest gas supplier to Turkey after Russia. Azerbaijan also slightly increased exports to Turkey by 3% to 3.34bn m³, all of which came from the BP-operated Shah Deniz field.

Kama Mustafayeva