Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez answered questions about the energy agenda on CNN Türk's live broadcast.
Recalling that President Erdogan said that the foreign and energy ministers' contacts would begin after Israeli President Herzog's visit to Turkey, Dönmez stated that he plans to go to Israel in April.
Dönmez stated that the realization of a possible pipeline project between the two countries is related to the mutual interests of the parties and said following words:
"Looking at the general lines of the project, a line of approximately 500-600 kilometers is required. On the other hand, it was necessary to draw at least 2-3 times more pipelines to Europe. We already have a national transmission system in our land. Some of them can be easily transferred from there. But in the future, if a higher volume is considered to be transported, it may be necessary to construct additional pipelines. But in the first place, we can easily transport a gas that can come from there both within the country and abroad."
NUCLEAR WILL BE ON TURKEY'S AGENDA
Emphasizing that there is no risk in the energy supply due to the Russia-Ukraine War, Dönmez said that Gazprom and BOTAŞ met frequently and they estimate that the current situation will not affect Turkey at the moment.
Dönmez also pointed out that there was no delay in Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NGS).
"Now we are doing such a study for Thrace. In fact, in order for Turkey to reduce its carbon emissions with climate change, we do not have the opportunity to meet all of the country's needs in an uninterrupted and regular manner with only renewable investments. If you are going to get out of coal, maybe natural gas in the future, nuclear power plants, which are a zero-emission technology, will continue to be on Turkey's agenda," he added.
99 PERCENT OF NATURAL GAS AND 92 PERCENT OF OIL IS IMPORTED
Evaluating the effects of the increase in energy costs on Turkey, "Half of our electricity production depends on imported sources. Natural gas and coal. Increasing costs here naturally increased electricity generation costs. Last year, our government did not reflect all of this to our citizens. It has provided a support of almost 100 billion liras. 80 billion of this comes from natural gas and 20 billion from electricity. In addition, the Special Consumption Tax was reset because our citizens were already in trouble due to the pandemic in fuel oil, with the scale mobile system, such a contribution of 65 billion liras was provided. In other words, last year, our government provided 165 billion liras of support under the name of energy subsidies, directly and indirectly. In 2022, price increases continue to increase. We import 99% of the natural gas we use. We import 92 percent of oil. We import half of the coal used in power plants. There is such a photo," he said.