Turkey ‘uses second cheapest gas in EU’

Figures show that Turkish consumers used second cheapest gas in European Union in the first half as the energy minister said the prices will not be hiked.

Turkey used the second-cheapest natural gas in Europe during the first half of 2014, as shown by European data released Jan. 1.

The gas price per kilowatt hour in Turkey was 0.033 euros ($0.039) for households and 0.024 euros ($0.029) for industry in the first half of last year, according to data from European statistics agency Eurostat released.

This was a drop in the price from 2013, when natural gas was 0.041 euros ($0.050) per kilowatt hour for households and 0.031 euros ($0.038) for industry.

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Dec. 31 that Turkey has about the cheapest electricity and natural gas among the 28 EU countries, and that energy prices would not rise in 2015.

Turkey imported over 44 billion cubic meters of natural gas from January to December in 2014. Of this amount, it imports around 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia, nearly 10 billion cubic meters from Iran and 6.6 billion cubic meters from Azerbaijan.

Romania pays the lowest price for natural gas in Europe. Natural gas per kilowatt hour was 0.031 euros ($0.038) in households and 0.030 euros ($0.036) in industry in 2014 in Romania.