Turkey hits record high gas consumption on Jan 8

ANKARA

Turkey’s daily natural gas consumption reached a historic record high at 245 million cubic meters on Jan. 8, the energy minister said on Jan. 9.

The country beat its previous record made on Feb. 14, 2017 when consumption totaled 243 million cubic meters.

According to Fatih Dönmez, January’s extreme cold conditions resulted in the country’s increased gas demand.

“Thanks to the measures we have taken to ensure our natural gas supply security, we have met this record increase without any downtime or cuts,” Dönmez said.

He noted that the daily natural gas flow had increased to 310 million cubic meters thanks to liquefied natural gas (LNG), floating liquefied natural gas unit (FRSU) and natural gas storage projects.

“Works are underway to meet our target for increasing the daily natural gas flow to 400 million cubic meters. Those measures will help Turkey not only meet gas demand but also become a gas exporter,” Dönmez added.

As of the end of 2018, there were 15 million natural gas subscribers or some 60 million people using natural gas in a total of 81 provinces and 504 residential areas, according to the minister.

Last year, Turkey consumed 53.85 billion cubic meters of natural gas — another record high for the country.