industryterm:energy hub

Energy dreams in the days of power cuts
▻https://tr.boell.org/de/2017/01/11/energy-dreams-days-power-cuts

The biggest city of Turkey, and its economic heartland, Istanbul has ended the year 2016 with power cuts over several days. Besides causing public outrage towards the provider companies, the power cuts also meant economic losses for private businesses. According to the Turkish Automotive Parts Industry Association (TAYSAD), car manufacturers lost almost 300 million Euros in these few days. Escalating winter conditions made power cuts hard to tolerate for consumers as well, as a good amount of houses are using electrical heaters. This situation is not without irony for a country that is hoping to become a global energy hub.

A photo showing Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, President Erdoğan’s son-in-law, seemingly berating the head of TEİAŞ, the company responsible for the electricity transmission lines spoke volumes about how unpleasant the political outfall from the cuts might be for the government. While the minister and the pro-government media have pointed to the possibility of an international conspiracy against the national electricity network, it is clear that at a time, when the government is hoping to rally public support for a constitutional referendum, these cuts will not help their ratings.

Even after the damage was repaired, the experts have continued warning that the problem is lying deeper and further cuts are to be expected mainly owing to the shortage in natural gas. Iran, the second biggest exporter to Turkey, has cut down the gas flow in December 2016 due to technical reasons, a development increasing the already existing deficit. BOTAŞ has repeated that it will cut supply to gas-fired power plants early in January. These cuts in urban centers have only been postponed as the weather conditions worsened last week.

Another challenge for the energy security of the country is the falling currency exchange rate. Most energy imports are traded in Dollars and the electricity companies are among those holding high amounts of debts in foreign currencies

#Turquie #Electricité #Coupure #Gaz naturel

The Natural Gas War Burning Under Syria
▻http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Natural-Gas-War-Burning-Under-Syria.html

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and their confederates are in it to win it, and the fighting in Syria has focused on the pipeline routes. Aleppo province, which would host the Qatari pipeline, is where Turkey wants to establish a buffer zone to support “moderate” rebel forces. If Turkey can control this territory, it will bolster the Qatari pipeline and ensure its own preeminence as the energy hub in southern Europe, where it would gather oil and natural gas from Russia, Central Asia, the Caspian, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East, and become less reliant on Russian gas, which accounted for over 50 percent of its imports in 2014. But Russia hasn’t been standing still: it has surrounded Turkey on three sides by occupying Crimea, sending more troops to Armenia, and deploying the S-400 air defense system to Syria, creating a no-fly zone, and maybe a “no-buy” zone for potential customers of Qatari gas.

#gaz #énergie #moyen-orient #Syrie

Turkey to become energy hub by pricing gas on spot mkt.
▻http://www.aaenergyterminal.com/news.php?newsid=5514007

Turkey can become a true energy hub by pricing natural gas on the spot market, Dr. Volkan Ozdemir, head of the Institute for Energy Markets and Policies, EPPEN, told Anadolu Agency.

Noting that Turkey is buying natural gas from Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran at the moment, Ozdemir said northern Iraqi and eastern Mediterranean gas can also be included with those who transit gas to Europe in the near future.

“If Turkey wants to truly become an energy hub, it has to become a financial center where the price of natural gas is determined on spot markets,” he explained.

Stating that natural gas prices are less indexed to oil prices, Ozdemir stressed Turkey is drifting away from European gas markets.

“In Europe, around 55 percent of natural gas prices are determined on spot markets by supply and demand balance, while the remaining 45 percent of prices are indexed to prices of oil, petroleum products, and long-term contracts. In the U.S., it is the same. Their natural gas is priced at Henry Hub,” he added.

The Henry Hub price indexation is used as a pricing point for natural gas in the U.S.’ state of Louisiana. Here gas pipelines also physically merge and serve as a distribution point, while the price of gas is determined by supply and demand balance in the market.

“Instead of just being a transit country for natural gas deliveries from the east to the west, Turkey can host a commercial gas market, where supply and demand meet and price is formed,” Ozdemir emphasized

#Turquie #Hub_énergie #Marché_gaz_naturel #Tarif_énergie