The Place of Natural Gas in Turkey’s Energy Sources and Future Perspectives

Turkey is an important candidate to be the “energy corridor” in the transmission of the abundant oil and natural gas resources of the Middle East and Middle Asia countries to the Western market. Turkey is planning to increase its oil and gas pipeline infrastructure to accommodate its increased energy usage. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the place of natural gas in Turkey’s energy sources by presenting its historical development. Natural gas consumption started in 1976 with the usage of limited indigenous natural gas production in a few industrial plants in Turkey. However, natural gas began penetrating the energy market in the late 1980s. Its consumption is increasing rapidly. The first autoproducer natural gas-fired plant was installed in 1992, while imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Algeria started in 1994 after the completion of the Marmara LNG terminal. In 1995, natural gas represented 8% of the total final energy consumption. Gas sales started at 0.5 Bcm (billion cubic meters), in 1987 and reached approximately 16.03 Bcm in 2001. Of this, power generation accounted for 68.6%, followed by fertilizer at 0.75% (0.121 Bcm), the industrial sector at 9.8%, and the residential and commercial sectors at 20.85%. Turkish natural gas use is projected to increase dramatically in coming years, with the prime consumers expected to be industry and power plants.