Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, regarding the establishment of a natural gas center in Turkiye, said, “I believe that this will not take a very long time. I hope we will establish this trading platform in about a year.”
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar spoke at the main session titled “Global Gas Market: Challenges in Transformation and Development Paths” at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.
Pointing out that there is a significant transformation process in energy markets, Bayraktar said, “This transformation will be among the biggest challenges we will experience in the next few decades. Tackling climate change and global warming through the transition to a greener, lower-emission system is an inevitable process and is already happening.”
Bayraktar stated that energy conversion should be done in a “smart” way and said, “Smart energy conversion should be through a sensitive, flexible, rational, non-emotional, digital transformation. When we say flexibility, we come across natural gas because gas is an extremely important transition fuel for the global energy transition.”
Emphasizing that Turkiye’s natural gas demand has increased rapidly in the last 20 years and will continue to increase, Bayraktar said, “This means that we must meet the increasing demand, and supply security is the number one priority for all energy market representatives in Turkiye.”
The calendar is taking shape at the natural gas center
Stating that negotiations with the Russian energy company Gazprom regarding the establishment of a natural gas center in Turkiye are continuing, Bayraktar said, “We are consulting with Gazprom and our partners in this project, especially on the establishment of an electronic trading platform. I believe this will not take a very long time. I hope we will have established this trading platform in about a year.”
Bayraktar pointed out that Turkiye has an even broader perspective and said:
“We have a broader perspective and desire to create a kind of energy and trade exchange in our Istanbul Financial Center, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attaches great importance to. We can create this international trade platform in the Istanbul Financial Center, which can include energy and mineral trade and also offers great opportunities and incentives for all parties. I think we can create it in 2024 with intensive work with our partners.”
Production will increase in Sakarya Field
Emphasizing that Turkiye has made significant infrastructure investments in the field of natural gas, Bayraktar said, “Pipelines, gasification terminals, and Turkiye has reached the point where it can meet approximately half of its natural gas needs with liquefied natural gas (LNG). We have also significantly increased the capacity of our underground storage facilities.”
Bayraktar pointed out that they started work in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea with 4 deep drilling ships and 2 seismic research ships and said, “In August 2022, we announced the largest natural gas discovery in our history. We named it Sakarya Field.”
Explaining that production started in the Sakarya field in less than 3 years, Bayraktar said, “Currently, the Sakarya Field produces approximately 3 to 4 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. The production here will first reach 10 million cubic meters per day, and then 40 million cubic meters at the plateau level.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz