Turkey's natural gas imports increased by 6.5% in August this year compared to the same month of 2019, according to Turkish energy watchdog's data on Thursday.

Natural gas imports increased to around 3.35 billion cubic meters (bcm) in August last year, from approximately 3.14 bcm for the same month of 2019, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said in its monthly natural gas market report.

In August 2020, the country imported 2.76 bcm of natural gas via pipelines, while 591 million cubic meters (mcm) was purchased as LNG, EMRA's data showed. This marked an increase in pipeline gas imports of 17.7% and a drop by 26.1% in LNG imports.

Russia was Turkey's top gas import destination, supplying 1.37 bcm of natural gas while Azerbaijan and Iran followed with 986 and 406 mcm, respectively.

In August, Turkey's gas imports from Azerbaijan and Iran grew respectively by 34% and 152%, while the volume of Russian imports fell by 5.5% compared to the same period last year.

- Consumption up 19.5%

Turkey's total gas consumption increased by 19.5% to approximately 3.05 bcm this August from around 2.55 bcm in August last year.

Household consumption grew by 7.8% to reach 274 mcm while the use of gas in power plants increased by 45% to 1.28 bcm during the same period.

The amount of natural gas in storage in August decreased by 12.9% to around 2.43 bcm from about 2.79 bcm in August last year.

This article is reproduced at www.aa.com.tr