IRANIAN GAS FOR TURKEY

S&P GLOBAL - June 19, 2025 - Iran is still exporting gas to Turkey and remains a "major" supplier for the Turkish market, Turkey's energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said June 19.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Bayraktar also said he hoped Iran would continue to supply gas to Turkey over the "years and decades to come."

Iran exports gas to Turkey via pipeline under a long-term contract for the supply of up to 9.6 Bcm/year that is set to expire in July 2026.

Iran was forced to shut in a limited amount of production from one of the phases of its giant offshore South Pars field after a drone attack June 14.

However, state news agency Anatolia cited Bayraktar on June 17 as saying he did not foresee any issues with Iranian gas supply.

"Iran is one of the major gas suppliers for the Turkish gas market," Bayraktar said in St. Petersburg on June 19.

"Currently they are supplying gas to Turkey, and still they are supplying gas to Turkey," he said. "And we're aiming and expecting this gas supply will continue over the next years and decades to come."

Low winter supply

Turkey's gas imports from Iran totaled 0.56 Bcm in March, according to the latest data made available by Turkey's regulator EPDK, or almost 10% of the country's total gas and LNG imports for the month.

It came after three months when Iranian gas flows to Turkey were low or intermittent.

Bayraktar said repeatedly over the past winter that gas flows from Iran were a fraction of contractual obligations and fell to zero for at least 10 days in January.

In previous years, during peak mid-winter demand, Iran has also struggled to meet high domestic demand and export commitments.

Of the 0.56 Bcm delivered from Iran in March, the EPDK reported that 0.11 Bcm was imported on a spot basis, indicating that it was likely gas imported under a swap arrangement with Iran and Turkmenistanthat began March 1.

Under the agreement signed earlier this year, Turkmenistan said it would ship 1.3 Bcm of its gas to Iran during 2025, and Iran would transfer the same volume to Turkey over the same period.

Gas demand

Bayraktar said June 19 that Turkey was a growing gas market. "Our demand most likely this year will reach 60 Bcm. We are the number four gas-consuming country in Europe," he said.

According to EPDK data, Turkey's gas consumption totaled 53 Bcm in 2024.

"We need additional volumes and we need to have our existing pipeline gas suppliers such as Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan," Bayraktar said, adding that Ankara also supported corridor projects that bring gas from Turkmenistan to Turkey and onto Europe.

Bayraktar also said Turkey had invested in LNG regasification capacity and that LNG could now meet almost 50% of domestic demand.

"This will help us diversify our supply sources, in terms of gas. Because our growing gas market needs additional volumes," he said.

It comes as spot LNG prices remain relatively high.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed the East Mediterranean LNG marker at $12.91/MMBtu on June 18.

Bayraktar said Turkey's main objectives in terms of energy were security of supply and affordability. "We have to provide these two things," he said.

"We still need oil, and we still need gas," Bayraktar added. "But we need to have a balanced energy mix. That's why we're investing heavily in renewables for diversification and climate purposes."

He said that by 2035, Turkey would quadruple its solar and wind capacity.

Bayraktar also said Turkey was expanding its Black Sea gas production and aimed to double output in 2026 and quadruple production to 40 million cu m/d in 2028.

Bayraktar added that Turkey was also looking at upstream opportunities internationally, pointing to Iraq, Libya, Niger and Somalia as examples. "We are open to any partnership for these projects," he said.

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