Türkiye’s conquest to become a hub for energy supplies
Türkiye’s plans and endeavors to become a global center in natural gas trade.
And that is by embracing international projects, as well as liquefied natural gas facilities.
Türkiye has already become the only market for natural gas trade in the region.
While Türkiye contributes to securing energy supplies in the region through international natural gas projects, it continues its efforts to become a center in which natural gas is traded and price determined, and not just a transit station.
Following Russia’s proposal to establish a center for natural gas in Türkiye for export to foreign markets, it is expected that the roadmap for this proposal will be clarified by the end of this year.
Türkiye’s qualifications
Türkiye currently has a strong energy infrastructure, with 7 international natural gas pipelines crossing its territory, and it has 4 liquefied natural gas facilities, two of which are two floating storage and gasification units (FSRU), and two facilities Underground natural gas storage.
Note: Gasification is the process of converting carbon-containing materials such as coal and biomass into carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
Among the pioneering projects in this field, we can mention:
First: The TurkStream
The TurkStream is one of the international projects, as it consists of two marine lines, each of which is 930 km long, extending from the Russian city of Anapa to the Qiye Koy area in the state of Karklar Elli in western Türkiye.
One of the two lines of this project is connected to Türkiye’s domestic network lines, while the other line provides gas transportation to the countries of the European continent.
The capacity of each line is 15.75 billion cubic meters per year.
Second: The BlueStream
The Samsun-Ankara main natural gas transmission line, known as the Blue Stream that reaches Türkiye from Russia via the Trans-Black Sea line, provides an annual gas supply of 16 billion cubic meters to Ankara.
This line enters Türkiye from the state of Samsun overlooking the Black Sea, and passes through the states of Amasya, Chorum and Qirqaleh, all the way to the capital, Ankara.
Third: The Russian-Turkish gas pipeline
There is also a natural gas pipeline between Russia and Türkiye, which has become inactive with the operation of the TurkStream lines.
This line enters Turkish territory from the Mal Koclar region near the Bulgarian border, passes through Hami Tabat and Amberli regions, and the states of Istanbul, Izmit, Bursa and Eskisehir, to reach Ankara, and is known as the Western Line.
Fourth: The TANAP pipeline
The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline TANAP transports Azerbaijani gas through Turkish territory, and currently 16 billion cubic meters of gas pass through it annually: 6 billion cubic meters to Türkiye, and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe.
A decision was taken to increase the capacity of the TANAP project, which was originally designed to increase its capacity to 32 billion cubic meters.
It is expected that work in this direction will begin soon.
The TANAP project line enters Turkish territory from the Bosov region on the Georgian border, and meets the TAP pipelines across the Adriatic Sea at the Greek border, where it crosses 20 states, 67 regions and 600 Turkish villages before connecting to the TAP pipelines.
Fifth: Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline
Türkiye can also import gas from Azerbaijan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline.
Sixth: East Anatolia Pipeline
On the other hand, Türkiye annually provides 10 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas, through the main eastern Anatolia transmission line.
In recent years, Türkiye has discovered natural gas fields in the Black Sea, and the quantities discovered in those fields amount to 540 billion cubic meters, which are expected to be extracted by the first quarter of next year.
