ANKARA
The International Energy Agency needs repositioning on energy security related issues, the agency’s top executive said in Ankara Monday.
"The importance of energy security will increase in the international political agenda (because of the ongoing crises in the world)," Fatih Birol, who is currently the chief economist at the 29 member strong agency, said.
Birol made the remarks at a ceremony held in his honor for getting selected as the next executive IEA director. He is expected to take charge in September 2015. Undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioglu was also at the event.
About the importance of energy security, the Turkish economist said that energy security had become all the more important because of the ongoing crises in the world, including the chaos in Ukraine.
Despite regional chaos, oil and gas producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Nigeria will remain important suppliers, Birol added.
The economist also spoke about the importance of climate change, an issue that was expected to be discussed at a global climate change conference in December in Paris. He noted that 80 percent of carbon emissions of the world came from the energy sector that adversely affected the climate.
"When IEA was founded, the share of IEA member countries in energy consumption was 80 percent, which is now 50 percent," he said.
"Turkey is not just a market for energy, it is also a safe and sustainable route for its energy rich neighbors to transfer their energy supplies in a safe way," Sinirlioglu said.
The undersecretary also spoke about the importance of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline or the TANAP and the Baku-Tiflisi-Ceyhan pipeline projects.
TANAP is part of a project that will carry natural gas from Azerbaijan's sector on the Caspian Sea, passing through Turkish territory to enter Greece, to further travel to Albania and then Italy to reach Europe. When completed, TANAP will carry around 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe.
