Moreover, Turkey’s insatiable energy demand and growing energy deficit are national priorities for Ankara. The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources’ official strategy for “electricity and the security of supply” deals with this by seeking to reduce the share of natural gas in electricity generation by 2023 to 30%, down from the current 46%.
To fulfill this strategy, Turkey has chosen to strengthen its energy ties with Russia through agreements for the Turkish Stream and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant — two giant energy supply sources that can easily make supplies from the KRG unnecessary for Turkey’s energy security.
The Akkuyu nuclear power plant is expected to represent 5% of the total installed electricity capacity of Turkey, according to a 2016 review by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The agreement on the Akkuyu nuclear power plant was signed with Russia and ratified by the Turkish parliament in 2010. Russia's state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, is to construct the facility.
Once completed, the plant is expected to produce approximately 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, meeting 6% to 7% of Turkey’s electricity demand. The project has repeatedly run into delays, and was briefly halted after Turkey downed the Russian jet. But ties have normalized, work on the plant has resumed and the first unit is expected to become operational in 2023 — around the same time the expected KRG gas pipeline could become operational.
Turkish Stream
Under the agreement signed for the Turkish Stream in October 2016 between Russia and Turkey, Turkey was ensured an additional 15.75 billion cubic meters (556.2 billion cubic feet) of gas per year. The Turkish Stream gas pipeline, since its inception, has been meant to replace the South Stream project by Gazprom to reroute gas that transited through Ukraine.
The Turkish Stream would have a negative effect on any additional pipelines from the KRG to Turkey's border with Iraq, making them of secondary importance or even redundant. At the Turkey-Iraq border, the KRG pipeline would join the Turkish leg of the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline.
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