Total inflow to Turkish gas system down 6.33 pct in 2019

Natural gas inflow to Turkey's gas network saw a year-on-year decrease of around 6.33 percent to 46.83 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2019, according to data from the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) on Jan. 4.

In 2018, around 50 bcm of natural gas entered the Turkish natural gas system, the majority of which, at around 49.33 bcm, was consumed.

As Turkey's natural gas export volume is very low, the total consumption is expected to be close to the amount of inflow.

In 2017, Turkey saw the highest inflow level in the country's history at 53.86 bcm.

Last year the share of local and renewable resources in electricity production amounted to 62 percent, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said in a Twitter post on Dec. 31.

Last year, the highest figure for natural gas inflow was seen in the month of January with 6.22 bcm and the lowest was in June with 2.49 bcm.

2019 starts with record high gas consumption

Turkey's daily natural gas consumption reached a historic record high at 245 million cubic meters (mcm) on Jan. 8 last year, according to Dönmez.

The country beat the previous record made on Feb. 14, 2017 when consumption totaled 243 mcm.

The energy minister explained that measures were taken to ensure natural gas supply security without any downtime or cuts during the extreme cold weather in January that triggered a large increase in gas demand.

Turkey's gas network has expanded with additional gas provision to 40 more regions to cover 550 settlements in total.

The transmission and gas distribution network, which exceeds 162,000 kilometers, extended to cover 81 percent of the population.

By the end 2019, the country's natural gas storage...