By Nuran Erkul
ANKARA
Turkey had the second-cheapest natural gas in Europe during the first half of 2014, according to European data.
The gas price per kilowatt hour in Turkey was €0.033 ($0.039) for households, and €0.024 ($0.029) for industry in the first half of last year, according to data from the European statistics agency Eurostat released on Thursday.
This was a drop in price from 2013, when natural gas was €0.041 ($0.050) per kilowatt hour for households and €0.031 ($0.038) for industry.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz commented on Wednesday that Turkey has about the cheapest electricity and natural gas among the 28 EU countries, and that energy prices would not rise in 2015.
Turkey imported over 44 billion cubic meters of natural gas from January to December in 2014. Of this amount, it imports around 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia, nearly 10 billion cubic meters from Iran and 6.6 billion cubic meters from Azerbaijan.
Turkey uses most of its natural gas for its electric power sector which accounts for nearly half of the country's natural gas consumption. The industrial and residential sectors each account for approximately 20 percent.
-Romania's natural gas is the cheapest
Romania pays the lowest price for natural gas in Europe. Natural gas per kilowatt hour was €0.031 ($0.038) in households and €0.030 ($0.036) in industry in 2014 in Romania.
Hungary, Serbia and Croatia are three of the top five countries which buy the cheapest natural gas respectively. Sweden uses the most expensive natural gas both in households and industry.
www.aa.com.tr/en
