US becomes Turkey's second biggest gas supplier, but for how long?
Turkey's second biggest gas supplier over the past winter was the United States, but Ankara may have to turn back to its neighbors to ensure it has sufficient supplies.
While Europe looks to American liquefied natural gas as a short-term alternative to Russian gas, Turkey may have to turn back to its neighbors to ensure it has sufficient supplies.
With energy prices seldom far from the headlines in Turkey, few Turks will have any problem identifying Russia as the country's main supplier of natural gas since gas imports began back in the late 1980s. Russia still met 44% of Turkey's gas demands last year.
Now, even with energy prices soaring, few in Turkey are aware that the country's second biggest gas supplier over the past winter was the United States, which shipped it in to meet Turkey's high winter gas demand.
The latest data released at the end of March by Turkey's energy market regulator EPDK confirms that for the four months from October through January, the United States supplied 17.4% of Turkey's gas imports, well ahead of near neighbors and longtime suppliers Iran (11.9%) and Azerbaijan (12.9%) and second only to Russia (38%).
