Türkiye has set a new record for daily natural gas consumption this Monday, the country's state-owned pipeline operator said on Wednesday.
"On Feb. 24, 2025, Türkiye sets a new record with a daily consumption of 333.7 million cubic meters of natural gas," BOTAŞ said on social media platform X.
The previous peak was recorded on Feb. 7, when the daily consumption reached 300 million cubic meters.
Türkiye has limited oil and natural gas resources, which makes it a major energy importer vulnerable to fluctuations in the energy markets. For two decades, it has been incentivizing investments in renewable power to reduce its high import bill and insulate itself from geopolitical risks.
The country consumes more than 50 billion cubic meters of gas every year and relies on a mix of piped gas from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, along with liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from various suppliers.
Russia also seeks to boost its gas exports to Türkiye. It plans to set up a gas hub in the country in order to offset the loss of the lucrative European gas market following its invasion of Ukraine.
Türkiye is currently producing about 8 million cubic meters of gas per day within the country.
Some 7 million cubic meters of that is coming from the vast reserve in the Black Sea, enough to meet the needs of approximately 3 million households.
The daily output is scheduled to increase to 9.5 million cubic meters as of the end of March or the beginning of April, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Tuesday.
The reserve, which has been discovered gradually since August 2020, is believed to contain 710 billion cubic meters of gas. Gas extracted from the field is processed and distributed through a facility at a port in the northern Zonguldak province.
The production is aimed to be doubled as of the third quarter of 2026, said Bayraktar. "In other words, we will reach 20 million cubic meters per day. Therefore, we will meet 7.5 billion cubic meters of our gas annually, which is 15% of our consumption," he noted.
To achieve that, Türkiye purchased a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform in 2023. The platform is expected to sail through the Bosporus in Istanbul this May and will become operational in 2026, said Bayraktar.
