Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.6
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Turkey is an increasingly important transit hub for oil and natural gas supplies as they move from Central Asia, Russia, and the Middle East to Europe and other Atlantic markets, the US Energy Information Department (EIA) said in its country analysis.
More than 2 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensate flowed through the Turkish Straits in 2015 along with several hundred thousand barrels per day of petroleum products, said the report.
Turkey is well placed to serve as a hub for oil and natural gas supply headed to Europe and other Atlantic markets from Russia, the Caspian region, and the Middle East, according to the report.
“The country has been a major transit point for oil and is becoming more important as a transit point for natural gas. Significant volumes of Caspian oil are sent to Black Sea ports (such as Novorossisyk, Russia and Supsa, Georgia) and then to Western markets by tanker via the Turkish Straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles waterways),” said the EIA analysis.
“Caspian oil and oil from northern Iraq also cross Turkey by pipeline, through the Ceyhan oil terminal on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.”
As of January 1, 2016, the Oil & Gas Journal (US) estimated Turkey's proved oil reserves at 312 million barrels, while its natural gas reserves are estimated at 177 billion cubic feet.
Turkey's growing consumption has helped spur development of multiple pipelines to bring natural gas into the country, and while it has left little natural gas available for export, new supplies have been contracted and new pipelines are under construction that will increase Turkey's imports and exports of natural gas, EIA analysts believe.
Turkey currently has two crude oil import pipelines: the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Azerbaijan and a pipeline from northern Iraq to Ceyhan, Turkey.
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