Turkish Gas Imports to Fall 10-11% in 2019
Turkish gas imports, supplied via pipeline and in the form of LNG, are set to fall by 10-11% yr/yr to 44-44.5bn m3 in 2019, the head of Turkey Natural Gas Distributors’ Association (Gazbir), Yashar Arslan, told local media.
Imports came to 32.73bn m3 in January to September, marking a 9% decrease yr/yr. LNG imports rose by 20% to 8.55bn m3 owing to low prices, mirroring a trend seen across much of Europe this year.
Gas-to-power conversion dropped 42% in January to September, Arslan said, as a result of warmer weather and higher renewables output. In September, gas deliveries to power plants were down 45% yr/yr at 823.42mn m3.
According to energy regulator Emra’s statistics, overall Turkish gas consumption came to around 32.6bn m3 in January to September, down 8% compared with the same period last year.
Turkey’s gas network now measures 140,000 km of pipelines in size, according to Arslan, providing 66mn of Turkey’s 82mn population with gas. Some 6.5mn more people have been connected to the grid in the last three years, and a further 2.3mn will receive access in 2020-2022, at a cost of lira 2bn ($336mn).
Even so, household gas consumption is not expected to increase this year, Arslan said.