Russia becomes Turkey’s top oil supplier

Turkey meets the majority of its oil and natural gas demand through foreign markets. However, more attention is being paid to domestic production in an effort to lessen dependency on foreign oil and gas, with the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) supplying 9 percent of demand. For natural gas production, this percentage is even smaller. A number of experts have noted the need for diversification of energy source countries based on strategic grounds. To achieve this, oil import and trade was liberalized in January 2005, and licensed companies were allowed under the new arrangement to import from any supplier.

Iran had previously topped the list of countries supplying Turkey's crude, followed by Russia, Libya and Saudi Arabia. TÜPRAŞ, which reduced the amount of oil purchased from Libya in the last two years, sought to fill the gap in supply this created by importing more from Russia. A similar scenario has been observed in imports of natural gas. The growing need for natural gas is being met by Russia after Iran proved unreliable by restricting gas flow more than once during past winters.

The state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) makes natural gas purchases mainly from Russia. Last year, 36.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas was imported to meet domestic demand. Of this amount, 23.1 billion cubic meters came from Russia and 6.1 billion from Iran. The remaining 7.2 billion cubic meters was procured from Azerbaijan, Algeria and Nigeria.