Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar denied media reports that Iran stopped natural gas exports to Turkey following an Israeli military strike on the South Pars gas field on March 18.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting on March 24, Bayraktar rejected the Bloomberg report on the cutoff.
'The flow of gas from Iran continues. Our storage facilities are currently 71% full,' he said.
Bayraktar, however, acknowledged the volatility of the region during a follow-up interview with Anadolu News Agency. 'The fact that no problems were experienced today does not mean they won't occur tomorrow,' Bayraktar said. He added that Turkey has diversified its supplies to mitigate such risks and is working to reach full storage capacity. He said it would cost $5 billion to fill all the facilities.
DIVERSIFIED SUPPLY AND STRATEGIC RESERVES
Data from the Natural Gas Distributors Association (Gazbir) shows that Iran accounted for roughly 14% of Turkey's gas needs last year. While Tehran is a key partner, Russia remains the primary supplier with 36.5%, followed closely by Azerbaijan with 20.6%.
Turkey aims to reach a storage capacity of 12 billion cubic meters by 2028. In November 2025, Bayraktar confirmed that Turkey reached a total storage capacity of 6.3 billion cubic meters. Daily consumption averages around 230 million cubic meters.
Brenda Shaffer, an energy policy specialist at the Atlantic Council, said that “Turkey will weather the Iran gas disruptions fine.”
She pointed out that Iran has a history of interrupting flows due to its own domestic shortages and added, “Turkey maintains very good gas storage and LNG import capacity. It also can increase gas imports from Russia and Azerbaijan.”
