Istanbul Turkey has faced an increase in demand for energy since the beginning of the second millennium as a natural result of the increasing pace of industrialization, the developing economy, and the noticeable increase in the population. After energy demand was 51.4 million tons of oil equivalent in 2002, it reached 117.5 million in 2012 until it reached 147 million in 2021.
The limited energy produced from local resources played a major role in putting great pressure on the country’s trade balance, as reliance on imported energy resources such as oil and natural gas increased, bringing the average annual spending on energy imports to $54.6 billion in the period between 2007 and 2017, after which an era begins. New in Turkish energy policy.
Reducing external dependence
The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alp Arslan Bayraktar, said during his participation in a conference on energy at Sapanca University in the Turkish city of Istanbul last week, that Turkey plans to become self-sufficient in energy within 30 years, pointing out that his country’s dependence on foreign countries in the field of energy has decreased to 67.8 percent. % in 2022, which makes Turkey’s energy imports estimated at 95 billion dollars.
He also noted that Turkey’s main problem in all macroeconomic issues is its dependence on foreign energy and energy imports at a rate exceeding 70% in most of the past years.
While Turkey’s dependence on abroad in the field of energy was 74% during 2021, the first six months of the current year 2023 witnessed a decrease of 26.2% compared to the same period last year, and in parallel, estimates indicate that energy imports will decrease by 26.4%. By the end of the year, they will reach $71 billion, and it is expected that these imports will record $77.3 billion in 2024, and $76.3 billion in 2025.
Turkey announced its national plan prepared by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, linked to the vision of the “Century of Turkey” announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in late 2022, with the aim of saving the country from dependence on abroad in the next 30 years and transforming it into a country free of emissions and completely independent in the country. Energy field.
In this regard, Turkey is preparing next month to announce the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency covering the years 2024-2030, in which Turkey will work to reduce carbon emissions by 100 million tons.
Turkey seeks to gradually convert to green and renewable energy sources, especially as it ranks 12th in the world and fifth in Europe in terms of “installed capacity” to produce renewable energy, in line with the Turkish national energy plan that aims to operate a total of 96.6 gigawatts of energy. Electricity in the country in the period between 2020 and 2035 through green hydrogen.
Exploration and oil discoveries
It is noteworthy that in 2017, it was announced that the Turkish National Energy and Mining Policy included increasing the use of local and national energy resources, and enacting legislation that would increase the rate of utilization of local and national resources until the percentage of external dependence on energy became zero by the year 2030, according to what the President confirmed. Board of Directors of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation Melih Khan Bilgin.
In line with that goal, Turkey decided to build a huge fleet of survey and exploration ships led by experienced and qualified local crews to search for natural energy resources under the sea waters that surround Turkey on three sides.
The Turkish exploration fleet includes many ships designated and equipped for professional and precise exploration, including the “Abdul Hamid Khan” ship, which is considered the largest oil and gas exploration ship in the Mediterranean, along with the Yavuz, Fatih, and Qanuni exploration ships.
As exploration operations continued, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced, in December 2022, that the “Fatih” exploration ship had discovered the largest natural gas field in the country’s history in the Black Sea, in the “Tuna-1” well, within the Sakarya gas field off… The city of Zonguldag, bringing Turkey’s reserves of natural gas discovered in the Black Sea to 710 billion cubic meters.
It is worth noting that 7% of the energy fields found in Turkey had reserves greater than 25 million barrels, and 93% of them had reserves less than 25 million barrels, while official sources reported that the size of the “Sakarya” field’s natural gas reserves in the sea Black, may exceed 320 billion cubic meters in the future.
President of the Turkish Oil and Natural Gas Platform Association, Mustafa Kallay, said that the discovery of natural gas fields in the Black Sea region of Turkey, in fact, indicates the presence of other hydrocarbon resources in the region, stressing the great importance that the state attaches to the local exploration and production sector with the aim of creating great economic value in The country.
Energy localization
Researcher on Turkish affairs, Bushra Ozdemir, in her interview with Al Jazeera Net, noted the Turkish government’s insistence on achieving energy independence and getting rid of dependency on oil-exporting countries, especially after the effects it suffered as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
She pointed out that the results of Turkey’s reduced external dependence on energy will not be limited to a decrease in demand for energy, which will improve the country’s economy, but it will also have a strong negotiating advantage regarding the pricing of its ongoing contracts, as Turkey has begun to transform from a country that relies heavily on importing approximately 99% of its natural gas consumption goes to a country that is able to meet its own energy needs thanks to the large offshore discoveries made recently.
This will create a favorable situation in its negotiations with countries such as Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan, from which it purchases pipeline gas under long-term contracts, as well as Algeria, Nigeria, and Egypt, from which it imports liquefied natural gas.
Ozdemir also stated that Turkey’s ambitions do not stop at meeting its own energy needs, but rather seeks to be one of the countries that export it, which gives it greater political and strategic influence in the region, especially as it may be the best option for Eastern European and Balkan countries that are looking for an alternative to Russia after the war. Ukraine.
Turkey has witnessed large works and investments made by the public and private sectors in the field of energy in recent years, but since 2022, its consumption of natural gas has reached approximately 53.5 billion cubic meters annually, while it produces approximately 380 million cubic meters annually, and it confirms The Turkish government said that production will begin to rise gradually and harmoniously in the coming years.
In terms of electricity, the installed electricity capacity in Turkey increased by more than 17 thousand megawatts in the past five years, reaching 104 thousand and 695 megawatts, and according to the electoral promises of the Justice and Development Party, the installed capacity aims to exceed 135 thousand megawatts in 2028.
