Azerbaijan ups gas supply to Turkey

23 January 2017 16:14 (UTC+04:00)

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By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan, one of the most reliable suppliers of gas to Turkey increased the volume of supplied blue fuel in January-October 2016. The country delivered some 5.31 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the reported period, as compared to 5 bcm in the same period of 2015.

Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority reported that in tote the country imported 40.78 bcm of gas, with 34.45 bcm falling to a share of gas imported through pipelines and 6.33 bcm to the import of compressed natural gas (CNG).

The share of Azerbaijan in the total volume of Turkish gas import stood at 14.43 percent in the reported period.

Turkey imports gas from Azerbaijan via the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum). The country has a contract for purchasing 6.6 bcm of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field annually.

Azerbaijan and Turkey also cooperate closely in the implementation of the ambitious Southern Gas Corridor Project, which comprises such energy projects as TANAP and TAP. Turkey aims to contribute to its energy supply security and that of Europe through the project, which envisages transportation of 10 bcm of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to Europe via Georgia and Turkey.

Turkey does not possess indigenous resources and imports more than 98 percent of the natural gas it consumes. Being a dominant fuel in the total energy mix, natural gas is deemed to be the most important component of the Turkish energy sector. The resource is used in power generation, residential and industrial sectors. Besides it accounted for 37.8 percent of total electricity generation in 2015.

Over the last two decades, Turkey has been the second country in terms of natural gas demand growth.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova