The Role of Azerbaijan in Ensuring Türkiye’s Energy Security

This article discusses the role of Azerbaijan in ensuring Türkiye’s energy security. Generally, from a geopolitical perspective, Türkiye is located at the intersection of east-west and north-south corridors. Despite its strategic geopolitical position, Türkiye is not particularly rich in hydrocarbon resources, especially oil and natural gas, which are its main sources of energy. This leads to a significant dependency of the national economy on imported energy resources. Türkiye’s energy policy is aimed at ensuring the country’s energy demand in a continuous, reliable, and secure manner. Türkiye’s annual oil demand exceeds 40 million tons, and gas demand approaches 60 billion cubic meters. Domestic production only meets about 15–20% of this need. The remaining 80–85% is supplied by neighboring and regional countries rich in energy resources, such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Iraq, etc. Currently, 54 oil and gas fields are being exploited in Azerbaijan. Several major projects have been initiated for the transportation of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas resources to Türkiye and Europe, thanks to the efforts of National Leader Heydar Aliyev and, subsequently, President Ilham Aliyev. Among these, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, TANAP, and TAP oil and natural gas pipelines are of particular importance. These rich hydrocarbon reserves of Azerbaijan play a significant role in reliably and sustainably ensuring the energy security of brotherly Türkiye.

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