Where is Turkey in this Picture?
Turkey’s primary energy consumption and production were respectively 108 million
Ton Equivalent Petroleum (TEP) and 29 million TEP in 2008.Turkey’s energy
demand is expected to grow 5.9 percent annually until 2025.Turkey needs to
take timely measures in order to cope with growing energy consumption. This is
not an easy task. First of all, Turkey, as shown in Table 1, does not have the appropriate
reserves to cope with its increasing energy demand.
Domestic energy resources in Turkey
Source Potential
Methane from gas hydrates (million tons) 14.000,0
Lignite (million tons) 10.400,0
Hard coal (million tons) 1.300,0
Asphaltite (million tons) 82,0
Oil (million tons) 38.7
Natural gas (million cubic meters) 21.900,0
Thorium (million tons) 380,0
Uranium (million tons) 9,0
Source: Balat, 2010, 1999.

Another flaw stems from Turkey’s current energy mix which is extensively based
on fossil fuels, and excludes alternatives such as renewable and nuclear energy.
Turkey depends heavily on imports of oil (93 percent) and gas (97 percent). Turkey
uses 55 percent of imported gas for electricity generation which is a very expensive
way when compared to other alternatives including renewable and nuclear. It is not, however, very easy for Turkey to decrease the share of naturalgas. Turkey barely coped with energy
security challenges in the 1970s and 1980s, despite efforts to translate shared Muslim identity into energy cooperation with Middle Eastern oil exporters.The rapid growth of Turkish
energy demand in the 1990s forced policymakers to benefit from the availability of Russian natural gas, rather than confronting the financial burden of massive investments in alternative energy.Accordingly, Turkey signed longterm agreements with Russia, Iran and
Azerbaijan; the first one being, the major supplier. Currently Turkey is very much
concerned with shifting its energy mix, attributing shares to renewable and nuclear
alongside carbon fuels. The strategy is not to decrease the volume of natural gas,
but rather to increase electricity generation from alternative energy while channeling
gas for cooking, heating and transport.