Turkey's natural gas imports increased by 22.5% in September this year compared to the same month of 2019, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports decreased by 1.3% year-on-year to 271,771 tons, according to data released by a Turkish energy watchdog Wednesday.

Natural gas imports increased to 3.72 billion cubic meters (bcm) in September from approximately 3.03 bcm in September 2019, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) said in its monthly natural gas market report.

In September 2020, the country imported 3.12 bcm of natural gas via pipelines, while 599 million cubic meters (mcm) was purchased as liquefied natural gas (LNG), EPDK's data showed. This marked an increase of 26.5% in pipeline gas imports and 5.1% in LNG imports.

Russia was Turkey's top gas import destination, supplying 1.85 bcm of natural gas, while Azerbaijan and Iran followed with 753 mcm and 514 mcm, respectively.

In September, Turkey's gas imports from Russia grew by 85% while the volume of imports from Azerbaijan and Iran fell by 8% and 20.5%, respectively, compared to the same month last year.

Meanwhile, the EPDK data showed that Turkey's LPG imports came from the U.S., Algeria, Kazakhstan, Greece, Norway, Egypt, Switzerland, Singapore, Croatia and Albania.

Turkey's LPG production in September decreased to 92,770 tons – marking a year-on-year drop of 6.8%.

Exports increased to 4,885 tons in September from 42 tons in September 2019.

Total LPG sales in September decreased by 4.5% to around 355,769 tons, including 286,318 tons of autogas, 62,629 tons of bottled LPG, and 6,821 tons of bulk LPG.

Consumption up 24.5%

Turkey's total gas consumption increased by 24.5% to approximately 3.28 bcm this September from around 2.63 bcm in September 2019.

Household consumption decreased by 2.5% to reach 244 mcm while the use of gas in power plants increased by 73.1% to 1.42 bcm during the same period. The growth in the volume of natural gas consumed by the power plants was among the main factors leading to an increase in total gas imports.

The amount of natural gas in storage in September decreased by 13.1% to around 2.81 bcm from about 3.23 bcm in September 2019.