Taner Yıldız

Turkey has invested 27 billion Turkish liras ($3.6 billion) on natural gas distribution since 2002, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 16.

"Since the day we took office, investment in natural gas distribution across Turkey has reached a total of 27 billion Turkish liras," Erdoğan said via video link at the opening ceremony of multiple energy and natural resources facilities.

Turkey launched on Tuesday the construction of its first nuclear power plant in the southern province of Mersin, with a ground breaking ceremony that was attended by Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz and other top officials.

On March 31, a rare thing in our century happened in Turkey. A major power outage hit most cities in the country. It was a day to remember.

According to daily Hürriyet, a technical problem in the system of the Turkish Electricity Conduction Company (TE?A?), which operates energy transmission lines, led to the massive outage.

Turkey will not include the largest hydropower plants in the privatization plan, even though investors have offered up to $20 billion to buy one of them, said Energy Minister Taner Yıldız Dec. 30.

Turkey could propose to Russia building an LNG terminal in an energy complex on its border with Greece, as part of talks on planned new gas pipeline with its northern neighbor, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has said.

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Turkish negotiators would meet with representatives from Russia's Gazprom to discuss a gas discount for 2015 again Dec. 10.

"We are continuing to work to negotiate a bigger reduction in gas prices. Our target is to clarify the final price by the end of this month," Yıldız said at the signature ceremony for the Istanbul 2016 World Energy Congress.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said the discount for Russian gas for Turkey may increase more than 6 percent in the future, depending on market prices and the realization of joint gas projects, RIA Novosti has reported.

Novak noted that Turkey had been asking for a discount of 15 percent for gas.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the discount for Russian gas for Turkey may be bigger than 6 percent in the future, depending on market prices and realization of joint gas projects, RIA Novosti reports.

Novak noted that Turkey had been asking for a discount of 15 percent for gas.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said the 6 percent reduction in the price of natural gas pledged by Russia is not sufficient, revealing that the relevant parties have directly approached Russian President Vladimir Putin to increase the reduction.

Taner Yıldız criticizes several claims regarding Turkey’s energy business that put pressure on the government, once again labeling them as ‘plans to discredit Turkey’