Turkey Slashes Gas Imports by 9% in 9M 2019
Turkey imported 32.73bn m3 of gas during the first nine months of 2019, marking a 9% decrease yr/yr, state energy regulator Emra reported on December 1.
The decline was drive by a 8% drop in consumption to 33.26bn m3. LNG imports rose by 20% to 8.55bn m3 owing to low prices, mirroring a trend seen across much of Europe this year. But piped gas supplies from Iran and Russia fell by 7% to 5.16bn m3 and by 34.5% to 11.6bn m3 respectively. This was partly offset by a 21.5% growth in Azeri deliveries to 6.86bn m3, on the back of the launch of the BP-operated Shah Deniz Stage 2 project in mid-2018.
Turkey’s gas storage volumes stood at 2.9bn m3 at the end of September, slightly less than at the same point last year. Turkish gas exports to its only customer, Greece, rose by 21.5% to 552mn m3 in the nine-month period.