Turkey is set to witness a significant rise in the natural gas demand this year, Deputy Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said last Tuesday, in remarks that come amid a record spike in gas prices around the world due to higher demand and lower stocks.
Bayraktar’s comments came in Dubai on the sidelines of the Gastech 2021 conference: “Turkey’s natural gas demand will reach around 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) this year, a noteworthy rise from 45 bcm to 50 bcm that the country consumes each year and for which it pays between $12 billion and $15 billion,” Turkish Daily Sabah reported.
Turkey imported 48.1 bcm of gas last year, up 6% from a year before, of which a third were from Russia.
Addressing the event at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Bayraktar was cited as saying that Turkey was discussing new contracts with several natural gas companies, including Russian gas giant Gazprom.
His remarks come a day after Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez met with Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom.
“The meeting discussed the state and prospects of cooperation in the gas sector. Particular attention was paid to gas supplies,” a statement by the company read.
“The parties expressed appreciation for the work of the Blue Stream and TurkStream gas pipelines, which are reliably supplying Russian gas to consumers across the Black Sea,” it noted.
The TurkStream pipeline stretching from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea has delivered 20.3 bcm of gas to Turkey from Jan. 1 through Sept. 19, a record high, the company said.
“This is an all-time high amount of gas for this period and an increase of 153% (or 12.3 bcm) against 2020 (8 bcm),” it added.
The gas market chaos has driven prices 280% higher in Europe this year and led to a 100%-plus surge in the United States. It is being blamed on a range of factors from low storage levels to carbon prices to reduced Russian supplies.