Turkey’s energy resources are quite diversified and include hard coal, lignite, asphaltite, oil, natural gas, hydro and geothermal. Oil and natural gas reserves are limited and almost all of Turkey’s proven oil reserves lie beneath southeast Anatolia. The major part of Turkey’s proven natural gas reserves are in Thrace.
Due to the efforts to diversify energy supply, the consumption of imported natural gas has risen rapidly. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Turkey had 2007 natural gas consumption of 35.06 billion cubic metres, 1.19% of the world total.
According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Turkey had 300 million barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2006. Oil consumption has increased in recent years, and this trend is expected to continue. The state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) dominates oil exploration and production activities and currently accounts for roughly 70 percent of Turkey’s domestic oil output.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Turkey consumed an average of 666.3 thousand barrels a day of oil in 2007, 0.78% of the world total and a change from 2006 of 10.95 tbpd. The major suppliers of crude to Turkey are Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Libya and Russia. Oil refining in Turkey is dominated by state-owned Turkish Petroleum Refineries (TUPRAS), which has four main refining complexes: Batman in the southeast; Aliaga near Izmir; Izmit near Istanbul; and Kirikkale near Ankara in central Anatolia. Turkey’s only private refinery is ATAS, near Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, a joint venture between British Petroleum, Shell and local company Turcas Petrolcülük. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Turkey had a 2007 refinery capacity of 613 thousand barrels a day.
Although Turkey is not a major oil producer, it is, due to its strategic location, an important oil transit country. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, which is the first direct pipeline to deliver crude oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean without crossing Russian soil or passing through the Bosporus or Turkish Straits, is 1,100-mile long and cost in the region of $4 billion to build. The pipeline is operated by a BP-led consortium of 11 national and international oil companies.
The 600 mile Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline transports oil exports from Iraq to the port of Ceyhan.
