Turkey’s natural gas imports increased by more than a third in July from a year ago, data by the country’s energy watchdog showed Friday.

Purchases surged 30.1% to around 4.05 billion cubic meters (bcm) from approximately 3.1 bcm in the same month of 2020, Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) said in its monthly natural gas market report.

Turkey imported 3.48 bcm of natural gas via pipelines, while 568 million cubic meters (mcm) was purchased as liquified natural gas (LNG), EPDK’s data showed. This marked an increase in pipeline gas imports of 33.7% and 11.8 in LNG imports.

Russia was Turkey’s top gas import destination, supplying 2.30 bcm of natural gas while Iran and Algeria followed with 633 mcm and 568 mcm, respectively.

Imports from Russia and Algeria grew by 173.5% and 46.6% in July, respectively, while imports from Iran declined by 4.7% compared to the same period of 2020.

Turkey’s total gas consumption also increased by 35% from a year ago to approximately 3.83 bcm.

Household consumption decreased by 4.6% to 239 mcm, while the use of gas in power plants increased by 72.5% to 1.93 bcm during the same period.

Consumption growth in natural gas power plants, which generated more electricity due to drought and lower hydro capacity over the last few months, continues to boost imports.

The share of natural gas plants in electricity generation was 37.2% in July this year relative to 24.5% in the same month of 2020.

The natural gas volume in storage in July increased by 31.1% to around 2.79 bcm, compared to about 2.1 bcm in July 2020.

Oil imports down

On the other hand, the country’s total oil imports were down by 1.3% year-on-year to 4.29 million tons in July, the EPDK data showed.

Crude oil imports, the category with the highest oil import volume, dropped by 3% in July to 3.06 million tons.

In July, Turkey imported the highest volume of oil and oil products from Iraq, totaling 1.23 million tons. Russia and Kazakhstan followed with 1.08 million tons and 575,118 tons, respectively.

Oil refinery product exports increased by 62.3% to 843,693 tons and oil refinery product output also rose by 18% to 3.34 million tons in July.

The increase in oil product output limited the rise in imports. Total domestic oil product sales in July increased by 0.2% to 2.95 million tons compared to the same month of 2020.