Turkey's natural gas imports increased by 1.8% in January this year compared to the same month of 2020, according to the Turkish energy watchdog's data on Friday.
Natural gas imports increased to around 6.09 billion cubic meters (bcm) in January this year, from approximately 5.98 bcm for the same month of 2020, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said in its monthly natural gas market report.
In January 2021, the country imported 4.50 bcm of natural gas via pipelines, while 1.58 bcm was purchased as LNG, EMRA's data showed. This marked an increase in pipeline gas imports of 16.8% while LNG imports fell by 25.5%.
Russia was Turkey's top gas import destination, supplying 2.67 bcm of natural gas while Azerbaijan and Iran followed with 1.40 bcm and 714 million cubic meters, respectively.
In January 2021, Turkey's gas imports from Russia and Azerbaijan grew by 21% and 18.4%, respectively while imports from Iran rose by 1.4% compared to the same period of 2020.
- Consumption down 2.8%
Turkey's total gas consumption decreased by 2.8% to approximately 6.33 bcm in January 2021 from around 6.52 bcm in January 2020.
Household consumption decreased by 8.7% down to 2.72 bcm while the use of gas in power plants increased by 8% to 1.40 bcm during the same period. Despite the growth in gas consumption in power plants, the drop in household gas consumption limited the increase of total gas imports.
The amount of natural gas in storage in January 2021 increased by 3.6% to around 2.31 bcm compared to about 2.23 bcm in January 2020.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr