Turkey is now Russia's last major gas market in Europe after years of imposing sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
Turkey is importing 22 billion cubic meters of gas under contracts with Russia's Gazprom, accounting for nearly 40% of Turkey's total gas demand, down significantly from more than 50% in 2018.
Russian gas is supplied via the Blue Stream and TurkStream gas pipelines, under multi-year contracts, respectively from February 2003 and January 2020.
Turkish state gas company BOTAS has also signed a series of long-term contracts to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), mostly from the US, taking advantage of the abundant supply of LNG in the global market in the next few years.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said that BOTAS will continue to receive gas from Gazprom next year but under a shorter-term contract mechanism, only one year.
Bayraktar Minister revealed that Turkey is also planning to invest in US gas production facilities to hedge against price risks with 1,500 LNG shipments that the country has pledged to buy from the US over the next 15 years.
To protect prices and perfect the value chain, we are considering investing in the US upstream market, he said.
Turkey's state-owned oil and gas giant TPAO is negotiating with major US energy groups, including Chevron and Exxon, with an agreement that could be signed in January 2026.
The US has become Turkey's fourth largest gas supplier this year with 5.5 billion cubic meters.
The majority of the US LNG contract was signed right before President Tayyip Putin's visit to the White House in September. During the meeting, US President Donald Trump suggested Turkey stop buying oil from Russia, Turkey's largest oil supplier, from 2022.
From January to September this year, Russia supplied about half of Turkey's crude oil imports. However, Kpler data shows that Turkish refineries have sharply reduced Russian oil imports in November.
Turkey's oil and oil imports are driven by private enterprises, but Bayraktar said that businesses are likely to comply with cuts, similar to 2016 2017 when Ankara complied with Iran sanctions.
Turkey is also negotiating with Iran on a 10 billion cubic meter gas import contract, due to expire in July next year, with the aim of increasing supply from Turkmenistan, Bayraktar Minister informed.
This year, Turkey has just signed a 1-year contract worth 1.3 billion m2 of gas from Turkmenistan, transiting through Iran.
In addition, Turkey plans to add two FSRU floating gas recycling stations in the coming years to increase LNG intake capacity. These FSRU stations could be leased to Morocco and some other countries in the future.
Turkey currently has three FSRU stations and two onland LNG khiation stations with a total capacity of about 50 billion cubic meters.
Forecasting a sharp increase in electricity demand, Turkey is planning to build two more nuclear power plants and negotiating with South Korea's KEPCO and Canada's AtkinsRealis for construction.
The US Westinghouse Group also expressed its desire to participate in the second factory project with KEPCO, Bayraktar said.
