CAN TURKEY BECOME A GAS HUB?

Since 1990s, Turkey has been committed to become an energy hub or center, which is, so far, one of the main pillars of contemporary national energy policy. Official documents do not directly mention the creation of a "gas hub" in Turkey as a main task, however all existing strategic plans focus on the development of Turkish gas market through creation of a predictable market and diversification of energy sources and suppliers. The latest requires the development of gas storage infrastructure, gas pipeline network, LNG and floating storage and regasification units (FSRU), and reorganization of energy enterprises. Approaches of various actors of Turkish energy policy regarding the ways of creating a gas hub still differ from each other: when liberals support the policy of reducing the share and role of state-owned companies in the market, others give priority to creating the necessary legislation and administrative conditions to ensure the transparent operation of state-owned companies while maintaining their vertically integrated structure. This study aims to identify the beneficial and unfavorable conditions in Turkey to achieve the mentioned goal. It is made up of four sections: the first section briefly examines the concept and criteria of a "gas hub", the next one outlines the goals set in Turkey's energy strategy and the last two sections put the strong and weak sides of the gas infrastructure and the market. Given the current state of the gas infrastructure and gas market, and also domestic and foreign political circumstances, it is still difficult to characterize Turkey as an "energy trading center/gas hub", simultaneously, it is impossible to ignore its great potential and based on the criteria of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), it can be concluded that Turkey belongs to the category of "emerging gas hubs".