ANKARA
Turkey's natural gas imports hit a record high at over 5 billion cubic meters in December, according to data from Turkey's energy watchdog on Monday.
Imports of natural gas increased 0.8 percent to over 5 billion cubic meters in December 2014, up from 4.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas in December 2013, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority said.
Imports increased 42 million cubic meters in December of last year compared with December 2013. This was due to a rise in consumption with colder weather, rise in the number of gas subscribers in homes and industry as well as improved gas transmission systems.
Natural gas imports increased 9.8 percent or 446 million cubic meters, in December 2014 compared with November 2014.
Total natural gas imports last year were 49.3 billion cubic meters, 8.8 percent more than the previous year.
Of the 69.9 gigawatts of installed capacity in Turkey, 21.4 gigawatts is allocated to natural gas and LNG sources with a total of 233 power plants.
The table shows the highest natural gas import amounts since 2009:
| Year |
Import levels (cubic meters) |
| December 2009 |
3,682,000,000 |
| December 2010 |
4,235,000,000 |
| December 2011 |
4,751,000,000 |
| January 2012 |
4,783,000,000 |
| December 2013 |
4,962,000,000 |
| December 2014 |
5,004,000,000 |
