No natural gas shortage in sight, as Türkiye plans to boost storage capacity while upgrading its facility to run on renewables

When the Ukraine crisis struck, Türkiye was still heavily dependent on energy imports, thus, it was forced to work hard to avoid a gas crunch and cope with elevated energy prices. Unraveling the mystery behind the country’s recent lack of energy security concerns shows that the opening of its first underground natural gas storage facility and the start-up of a giant gas project in the Black Sea enabled it to strengthen its energy independence. Further steps are now being taken to scale up the natural gas storage capacity and make the facility more efficient while slashing greenhouse gas emissions with renewables.

Ever since the Ukraine crisis disrupted global energy markets and supply flows, giving birth to worldwide energy woes, Türkiye and other countries around the globe have been working around the clock to shore up energy supplies and avoid shortages. It is no secret that Russian gas covers almost half of Türkiye’s energy needs while gas imports from Iran and Azerbaijan through pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, Nigeria, Norway, Algeria, and the U.S. complete the picture of the energy import system in the country. In December 2022, Türkiye, which has its feet in both Southeast Europe and West Asia, celebrated a rise in capacity at Silivri, its first underground natural gas storage facility.

At the time, the country’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claimed that the increase in capacity to 4.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from 3.2 billion bcm would turn the facility into the biggest storage site in Europe. The site’s daily withdrawal capacity of 28 million cubic meters (mcm) was bolstered to 75 mcm and two offshore platforms, manufactured domestically, had been set up offshore as part of works to boost the facility’s capacity. The Silivri natural gas storage facility is expected to meet all of its electricity demands with renewable energy. To this end, work is underway to install a wind turbine with a 4.2 MW capacity.

As Erdoğan is leaving no stone unturned to transform Türkiye into an energy hub, he designated the country’s Thrace region, bordering Greece and Bulgaria, as the best spot for a natural gas and LNG hub at the end of 2022. Following the discovery of the Sakarya gas field in August 2020 and other discoveries, including the one in December 2022, Türkiye’s natural gas reserves in the Black Sea rose to 710 bcm. The Sakarya project came on stream on April 20, 2023, with daily gas production of 4 million cubic meters.

However, TPAO already disclosed plans to ramp up production to 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in the first development phase while the utilization of a floating platform is anticipated to help bring the output to 20 million cubic meters. The second development phase is expected to enable 40 million cubic meters of natural gas in the coming years as other wells go into operation. After full capacity is reached, Sakarya is expected to meet around 30% of Türkiye’s current natural gas needs.

During the extended board meeting of OSBÜK, the Higher Organization of Organized Industrial Zones, Alparslan Bayraktar, Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, underlined that no shortage of natural gas was foreseen, unlike in previous years. Bayraktar, who pointed out that big investments had been made in the field of energy to further increase production and employment in the industry, said: “We need to produce more value-added products, higher quality, higher technology products and increase export volume and profitability. We aim to reduce energy import by using our energy more efficiently and using our domestic and renewable resources.”

While explaining that a 14% energy saving was achieved with an investment of approximately $8.5 billion, thanks to the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan covering the years 2017-2023, Bayraktar confirmed that the 2024-2030 2nd National Energy Efficiency Action Plan would be revealed at the beginning of January 2024, adding: “We set an emission reduction target of 100 million tons. Energy efficiency is extremely important in terms of reducing our dependence on foreign sources, meeting the demand with our own resources, and achieving climate goals.”

Furthermore, Türkiye has made inroads in taking advantage of energy diversification opportunities from different sources, especially LNG, as 50% of the country’s natural gas needs are met from liquid natural gas. As a result, the natural gas woes experienced in previous years are not expected to make an appearance this year or in the foreseeable future, since the country believes that it can take care of this issue once and for all after its gas resources come into play more intensively.

While visiting the Silivri underground natural gas storage facility, Bayraktar used the opportunity to drive home the fortified natural gas supply by explaining: “As of today, we have a 100% occupancy rate in this warehouse. Therefore, we are entering the winter extremely prepared. We want to develop this place further. In the coming period, we are working on a new project that will increase the capacity here to 5.6 billion cubic meters.”

As the Silivri natural gas storage facility, established in Istanbul, is of critical importance for the country’s energy security, Bayraktar noted: “With our recent investments, it has become a facility that alone has the ability to meet the gas needs of Istanbul throughout the winter. This makes this facility important in terms of our security of supply during this winter and the coming winters, especially in terms of the security of supply in Istanbul and the region, and in terms of being the main base of our natural gas trade center in the future.”

Moreover, Türkiye has set the wheels into motion to increase the capacity at the storage facility to 5.6 or 6 billion cubic meters, which represents an additional capacity of around 1 billion cubic meters over the next two to three years. While emphasizing that the facility is equipped with the latest technology and environmentally friendly systems, Bayraktar outlined: “This is also an extremely environmentally friendly facility.

“In the coming period, we will make a new additional investment in our facility, which meets all its energy from renewable energy, and further increase its capacity with a wind turbine. Therefore, it is an exemplary facility in Europe, both with its environmental applications and with its energy source from carbon-free, renewable energy. It is also the largest natural gas underground storage in Europe in terms of offshore storage capacity.”

Aside from throwing the call to transition away from all fossil fuels in the final text, the COP28 UN climate talks hammered home the key role critical minerals would play in the energy transformation ecosystem and fight against climate change. These rare earth elements are perceived to be indispensable pieces of new technology developments such as battery technologies, renewable energy technologies, and essentially energy transformation. Bearing this in mind, Bayraktar underlined that Türkiye discovered the world’s second-largest single-bed reserve in Eskişehir Beylikova facility in 2022.

During his recent visit to the fluorite, barite, and rare earth elements (REE) management facility – where rare earth elements, which are strategic raw materials for high-tech products – are extracted, the country’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources highlighted “very ambitious” targets to make Türkiye a net exporter in minerals and stated: “There is approximately 690 million tons of ore here. We established a pilot facility in the first stage for the operation of this resource, and our esteemed president inaugurated it last April. In the first stage, we will process 1,200 tons of ore.”

Since Türkiye is hard at work to establish an industrial facility that will process 570,000 tons of ore per year and produce approximately 10,000 tons of rare earth oxide per annum, Bayraktar is convinced that this will enable the country to become one of the top five global players in this arena, positioning it to be an important supplier for many countries in the world, thanks to the access to these raw materials and rare earth elements. 

Meanwhile, Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, who is adamant that the government is doing its utmost to support citizens in a bid to cushion the bite of high energy costs and avoid price increases, confirmed that about 21,000 energy workers are burning the midnight oil to deliver uninterrupted energy supply to the country.

“As we enter the new year, our support continues to ensure that our citizens are not affected by electricity costs, natural gas costs and energy costs. There was no price increase as you all know,” said Bayraktar while adding that the country would continue to protect its citizens from a rise in energy prices during 2024.

He also underscored that Türkiye was ranked sixth in the world in terms of electricity grid size, and elaborated: “We have a transmission and distribution network of approximately 1.5 million kilometers. Therefore, managing this requires great effort. We continue our efforts to provide electricity from more renewable sources in the coming period. Our goal is to activate a renewable installed power of 5,000 MW every year.” 

To reach its medium-term goal of producing 60 GW of renewable energy by 2035, Türkiye needs to install 5 GW of solar and wind power capacity per year over the next 12 years. Plans are also afoot to build two more nuclear plants in the country.

While Türkiye’s wind potential is around 100 GW under current technology and conditions and the current installed power is 11,609 MW, developments in wind turbine technologies have the potential to push this up to 150 GW, signifying an additional capacity of about 140 GW.

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