Oil and Gas: Growing Demand
Most of Turkey’s natural gas imports arrive in the country via pipeline, including those from Russia (56%), Iran (18%) and Azerbaijan (8%). The majority of Russian gas arrives via the Blue Stream pipeline, although sizeable volumes also reach the large population centres in and around Istanbul via the Bulgaria-Turkey pipeline. Turkey received about 290BCF of Iranian natural gas via the Tabriz-Doğubayazit pipeline in 2012. An additional 118BCF arrived from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline in the same year. Turkey also imports liquefied natural gas (LNG) amounting to 16% of total imports, particularly from Algeria, Qatar, Egypt, Nigeria and Norway. LNG volumes arrive at the country’s two terminals, Marmara Ereğlisi in Tekirdağ and Aliağa in Izmir.
As of 1 January 2014, Turkey had six refineries with a combined processing capacity of 714,275bbl/d, according to Oil & Gas Journal (see map 2 for the locations of key refineries). The majority of this refining capacity was built up in the 1980s (see figure 3).
Tüpraş is Turkey’s dominant refining firm, operating more than 85% of the total refining capacity as well as controlling 59% of the total petroleum products’ storage capacity. Given demand – and demand growth – in Turkey, there is room for increased crude oil refining capacity. Currently, Turkey imports some products, particularly diesel, to make up for inadequate refinery output. A smaller amount of products for which refinery output exceeds local demand is exported (mostly gasoline).