A top Turkish official said on Thursday that the region needs "to formulate a new structure for the energy system," in light of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, proposing three options.

"There must be new supply lines that are technically and commercially viable," Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

The minister suggested that the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, due to the United States and Israel’s war with Iran, indicates the importance of diversifying energy routes and will force the world to move toward forming a new energy structure.

"We are going through what we might call the 'mother of all crises.' The world has witnessed many oil crises in the past 50 years, such as the post-COVID-19 crisis and following the Ukrainian-Russian war, but this crisis seems to be the biggest of them all," Bayraktar said, according to a transcript shared by the publication.

"The world is now beginning to feel the economic impact of the crisis. While there doesn’t seem to be a supply problem in the West at the moment, rising prices have affected everyone."

In line with this, he highlighted Türkiye's strong infrastructure and pipelines.

"Our geographic location and the presence of world-class oil and natural gas reserves in our region, we have become a pivotal country in the region," he maintained.

He went on to mention two pipelines, Blue Stream and TurkStream, coming from Russia, through which the nation receives natural gas. "We also have two gas entry points into Türkiye, one from Azerbaijan and the other from Iran," he added.

"We have also established natural gas storage facilities in numerous locations, increased the capacity of our pipelines connecting to Europe, and recently began supplying Syria with gas through the Kilis region. Thanks to our integrated partnerships, we have invested heavily with our neighbors in electricity, natural gas, and oil infrastructure," he suggested.

Also pointing to issues of supplies and energy security, he emphasized that the main priority is to ensure the stability of domestic needs.

The minister also suggested Ankara is well-suited to weather the crisis, as it has sufficient strategic energy reserves, with gas storage facilities that are 72% full, compared with Europe’s at just 28%.

Accordingly, three proposals that Bayraktar mentioned for the region included transportation of gas from Turkmenistan, extending the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline, and the third one setting up a natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Türkiye.

"One, transporting Turkmen gas (from Turkmenistan) across the Caspian Sea to Turkiye and Europe is a proposal we have been discussing for years and an indispensable project," he said.

"Two, extending the (Iraq-Turkiye) oil pipeline to reach Basra, which is of vital importance to Turkiye, Iraq and global markets as well."

"And third, the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkiye, passing through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, is a huge, extremely necessary and technically and commercially viable project."