Turkey will keep buying Russian gas despite high prices
Russia's share of Turkey's gas imports fell to 37 percent in 2025 from 64 percent a year earlier, while Russian pipeline supplies edged up.
Turkey does not plan to stop buying Russian natural gas despite high prices, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said, Russia's state news agency TASS reported on Saturday.
"It's not about politics, it's about price. Russia is very expensive," Bayraktar said.
He said high gas prices leave Turkey little choice but to look for alternatives, such as other pipelines, cheaper gas or other fuels.
Still, Bayraktar said Ankara has no intention of abandoning Russian gas, though he warned that the shift toward cheaper alternatives may continue each year.
TASS calculations based on data from Turkey's EPIAS exchange showed that Turkey's gas consumption reached an all-time high in 2025, approaching 64 billion cubic meters, up 13 percent from 2024.
TASS calculations based on data from Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority, known as EPDK, showed that Russian pipeline gas supplies to Turkey rose 0.4 percent to 21.16 billion cubic meters in 2025.
When liquefied natural gas shipments, which did not take place in 2025, are included, total Russian supplies to Turkey fell 2 percent last year.
The Turkiye Today portal reported that Russia's share of Turkey's imports dropped to 37 percent in 2025 from 64 percent in 2024.
Supplies from Azerbaijan rose to 22 percent of imports last year, while supplies from the United States reached 16 percent.
Russia has long been one of Turkey's main gas suppliers, delivering much of it through pipelines across the Black Sea, while Turkey depends heavily on imports to meet its energy needs.
