Turkey’s new projects for transmitting oil and gas, are of interest of Europe as they diversify energy sources, says Energy Charter Senior Expert Gabriela Prata Dias.
Turkey’s new projects for transmitting oil and gas, are of interest of Europe as they persify energy sources, says Energy Charter Senior Expert Gabriela Prata Dias.
Transfer of oil and gas via Turkey is important for Europe in terms of energy persification, said Gabriela Prata Dias, senior expert at Energy Charter Secretariat.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of 5th Energy Efficiency Forum and Fair in Istanbul, “Europe is quite dependent both on Russia and OPEC countries for energy,” said Dias.
Asked about Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) which will carry gas to Europe through Turkey from Azerbaijan and new pipeline that will provide exports of Iraqi Kurdistan region’s oil via Turkey, Dias said those projects, which Turkey plays a vital role, generated from the idea of persification, and were of interest of Europe.
– “Turning to RES, a revolution”
“On energy demand, Turkey is one of the countries with highest foreign dependency levels when compared to bigger or similar size countries,” said Dias.
Stating that Turkey had started to take certain steps to decrease its dependency by adopting EU acquis communitaire on especially building and eco-design, “Still there is a lot of work that has to be done, specially in the household sector,” said Dias.
About investing in renewable energy sources (RES), which is another important target to decrease the dependency, Dias mentioned that although Turkey had a huge potential on solar, hyro and wind, renewable energy still made small contribution to the energy supply.
“One of our conclusions is that in terms of energy intensity, Turkey is performing well when you compare to whole world average number but still it is lacking behind in energy intensity compared to OECD countries and EU countries average.”
Asked about the reasons of this situation, Dias noted that RES were dispersed sources, which made them impossible to be concentrated them in one place, thus difficult to control.
“And if you are opening it to private sector like in the US, EU, you have also to regard many aspects on the transmission, distribution. So it is a whole revolution. It has to be very well planned and security of supply condiitons must be provided.”
– “Turkey could follow Portugese model”
Dias gave example from Portugal, her homeland and said, “Around 80 percent of energy supply comes from RES, mostly wind and hydro.”
Dias explained Portugese experience:
“Since 1960s, we had a huge plan for developing hydro and wind power. Now portugal combines the two. When we have too much wind power during the night, we use the energy to pump to upstream for the hydro power to run during the peak hours of the day. Another thing is that every month a tiny share of our electricty bill goes to pay for RES.”
– “Report to be released in April”
Dias stated that Turkey could follow Portugese model, and added, “Of course there are other models, and Turkey already started to think about them. Turkey has very good professionals both in leadersship and technical level.”
“For sure energy efficiency and RES must be target for long term supply reducing energy dependence in Turkey.”
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement which establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border co-operations in the energy industry. Its Secretariat, based in Brussels, Belgium provides support to the implementation of the treaty.
The Energy Charter Treaty has 54 members including EU states, non-EU Eastern European, Central Asian states, Japan and Australia.
Turkey is a signatory of the treaty since 2001.
In 2013 Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry applied for consultation to the Secretariat, which will announce a review & recommendations report in April after completing its research on Turkey’s energy policy.
“This is a voluntariy process. The Secretariat conducts research and prepare policy recommendations based on signatory states’ application. As for Turkey, we have finalized a draft report with more than 30 recommendations. However, it is up to Turkey to implement them or not.”
AA