Turkey's natural gas imports increased by 15.6% in December 2020 compared to the same month of 2019, according to the Turkish energy watchdog's data on Wednesday.
Natural gas imports increased to around 6.26 billion cubic meters (bcm) in December last year, from approximately 5.4 bcm for the same month of 2019, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said in its monthly natural gas market report.
In December 2020, the country imported 4.87 bcm of natural gas via pipelines, while 1.39 bcm was purchased as LNG, EMRA's data showed. This marked an increase in pipeline gas imports of 32.9% while LNG imports fell by 20.6%.
Russia was Turkey's top gas import destination, supplying 2.94 bcm of natural gas while Azerbaijan and Iran followed with 1.1 bcm and 818 million cubic meters, respectively.
In December 2020, Turkey's gas imports from Russia and Azerbaijan grew by 56.4% and 18.9%, respectively while imports from Iran dropped by 4% compared to the same period of 2019.
- Consumption up 16.6%
Turkey's total gas consumption increased by 16.6% to approximately 6.07 bcm in December 2020 from around 5.21 bcm in December 2019.
Household consumption increased by 14.3% to reach 2.31 bcm while the use of gas in power plants increased by 42.8% to 1.55 bcm during the same period. The growth in the volume of natural gas consumed by power plants and households was among the main factors leading to an increase in total gas consumption and imports.
The amount of natural gas in storage in December 2020 decreased by 7.9% to around 2.85 bcm compared to about 3.09 bcm in December 2019.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr