Turkey incentivises use of domestic lignite to ease gas import dependency

Gas to Power Journal

The hunger of Turkey's industry for natural gas is unabated, while new government incentives and tax breaks aim to put the use of domestic lignite resources at an advantage over natural gas as a fuel source for power generation.

 "We are over reliant on gas imports and this dependency is set to rise in line with GDP growth," said Levent Özcan Caner, Strategy Department, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, suggesting that government regulation in favour of coal would help reduce Turkey's gas import dependency.

 As project developers start to submit more licences for lignite-fired plants, "we are also putting a strategy document together for licence applications for power plants that run on imported coal," he told a conference organised by Gas to Power Journal in Istanbul.

 To incentivise investment in new coal power plants, the Turkish government has granted developers of new lignite power plant projects some form of corporate income tax allowance (investment participation rate), exemptions from customs duty and VAT and support employer's contribution to insurance premiums. Moreover, the government also helps with allocating state-owned land near domestic lignite production sites.

Analysts estimate the above measures will increase the share of coal in Turkey's energy mix rise from about 28 percent in 2011 to over 37 percent by 2020. To reap maximum benefits, developers of coal-fired power plants need obtain investment certificates by 2013, Gas to Power Journal was told.

Turkey responds to Greece's note verbale to UN by issuing its own

Ekathimerini

Turkey has forwarded a note verbale to the United Nations in response to a Greek one sent to the international organization on February 20, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced late on Tuesday.

According to the Greek Foreign Ministry, the Turkish verbal note challenges the right of the Greek islands to a continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, in violation of article 121 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Athens had submitted a verbal note to the UN notifying international officials of Turkey’s granting of exploration permits for areas deemed to cover the Greek continental shelf.

At the time Turkey’s Foreign Ministry had issued a statement defending its decision, noting that the permits that had been issued since 2007 to the state-owned oil company TRAO concerned territories within boundaries of the Turkish continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Will Turkey Benefit from its Centrality?

by Karen Ayat | Natural Gas Europe

Turkey is energy poor. The country imports the vast majority of its oil, gas and hard coal supplies to meet domestic demand. Turkey imports 58 percent of its gas from Russia, 19 percent from Iran, 9 percent from Algeria, 9 percent from Azerbaijan and 3 percent from Nigeria.

Turkey paid $60.1 billion for energy last year with an 11 percent increase from a year earlier. Turkey’s energy dependency is expected to double in the next decade due to a massive rise of energy consumption, according to a recent report by the US Energy Information Administration(EIA). Electricity needs in particular are expected to grow twice as fast as its overall energy use.

In a recent announcement, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said that indications of possible shale gas resources had been found in the Central Anatolian provinces of Ankara, Konya and Kırşehir. The shale gas reserve is estimated at 1.8 trillion cubic meters and could satisfy 40 years of natural gas consumption with an annual production of 45 billion cubic meters. Turkey is currently employing its efforts to determine the accuracy of its shale gas potential.

Whether Turkey is blessed with shale gas remains uncertain. What is certain, is that it is blessed with centrality. It connects an energy-rich East to an energy-hungry West. Turkey could therefore play a paramount role in facilitating the transport of Israeli gas to a Europe largely dominated by Russian gas. Israel and Turkey are flirting with the idea of building a gas pipeline from Israel’s Leviathan Basin directly to Turkey to supply European markets. However, a few obstacles might stand in the way.

No Turco-Greek oil rift in Aegean: Energy minister

by Barçın Yinanç | Hurriyet Daily News

Energy Minister Yıldız seeks to put Turkey’s Aegean neighbor at ease, saying Ankara has no plans for energy exploration that would upset Greece

Energy issues will not become a subject of tension between Turkey and Greece, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has said, adding that Ankara has told Athens it has no current intention of conducting exploration in the countries’ shared sea. 

“There is no problem in energy issues,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News despite a divergence of views on exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean that recently droveGreece to complain to the United Nations about Turkey’s exploration efforts.

“We have the intention of using energy issues not as a reason to create tension but as a reason for growth and opening. We will see whether other countries will follow this principle,” Yıldız told the Daily News when asked about the recent initiative of Greece, which said on Feb. 22 that it had notified the U.N. of Turkey’s granting of exploration permits for areas “on the Greek continental shelf.”

Greece’s move came just days ahead of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ visit to Turkey, which resulted in the signing of nearly two dozen agreements on March 4.

Turkey is willing to exist on whole Iraqi soil: Energy Minister

by Barçın Yinanç | Hurriyet Daily News

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız says the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq should be more open for energy deals, linking the issue to the continued ‘normalization’ of Iraq. ‘Why is there a differentiation between the south and the north when the issue is to increase revenues?’ he asked the Daily News.

Controversial energy projects between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are necessary for the continued “normalization” of Iraq, according to Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız.

“If Iraq is to be considered as a whole … there should not be any differentiation between its south, north, east, or west,” Yıldız said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News. “The revenue to be obtained there [in the north] will be reflected based on the proportionality that they agreed on, which is 17 to 83 percent. Why is there a concern about this?”

The Iraqi government claimed to have received a letter from Ankara giving assurances that it would not sign any energy deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) without the consent of Baghdad. 

We have no information about that letter. No such letter was written by the Turkish Energy Ministry. However, if Iraq is to be normalized and if we are to talk about Iraqi projects, then we need to agree on doing projects. In other words, saying “we agreed not to do any projects” can’t be a contribution to Iraq’s normalization. If Iraq is to be considered as a whole, which it should be, there should not be any differentiation between its south, north, east, or west. If you make a distinction about a certain place then it means there is a problem there. Why is it that oil or natural gas exploration becomes an issue when no such issue was raised when we undertook operations in the south? The revenue to be obtained there [in the north] will be reflected based on the proportionality that they agreed on, which is 17 to 83 percent. Why is there a concern about this?

Baghdad says: I have a problem that I need to solve with the north, don’t strike a deal with the north before I solve the problem.