ANKARA: Turkiye is not facing any problems regarding energy supply security due to the Iran war but the situation is “volatile,” Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar was quoted as saying by Turkish media on Tuesday.
“We hope the war will not last any longer. But the process is currently under our control,” Bayraktar told reporters on Monday evening after a cabinet meeting, broadcaster Haberturk reported. “There is no problem or difficulty in energy supply security.”
Turkiye is a big energy importer which neighbors Iran and is among the most exposed emerging market economies to the global energy price jump.
Bayraktar said in late March that Turkiye’s dependence on Middle East oil was at a “manageable” 10 percent of total supplies and that the country had taken protective diversification steps.
At the time he said every $1 increase in oil prices adds about $400 million to Turkiye’s energy bill, while there had not been any natural gas supply cuts so far from Iran, Turkiye’s fourth largest supplier last year.
On Monday, Bayraktar told reporters that he had spoken with the Hungarian foreign minister and discussed the issue of protecting the security of the TurkStream pipeline, which carries Russian natural gas to southern Europe through the Black Sea and Turkiye.
Explosives were found near the TurkStream pipeline in Serbia at the weekend, prompting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to convene an emergency defense council.
Russia and Turkiye formally launched the TurkStream pipeline, which has a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters per year, in January 2020. The pipeline allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe.
“The security of the pipeline in the Black Sea and on our side is important,” Bayraktar said.
