Turkey focuses on increasing coal production

by Nudrat Alim

September 17, 2009: Production of hard coal in Turkey was recorded at 1 million ton in the first seven months of 2009, as per the World Bulletin.

Hard coal deposits in Turkey are primarily found in western part of the country in the Zonguldak Basin. The region is known to have more than 700 million tons of workable reserves and 80 percent out of this total volume can be used for coking purposes.

However, most of the country's indigenous energy resources are taken care of by the widespread lignite deposits, reserves of which are estimated to be as high as 8 billion tons. In 2006, Turkey produced close to 3.5 million tons (mt) of hard coal and 62 mt of lignite. There are very few small power plants which use the hard coal produced in the Zonguldak Basin, while the larger Iskenderun power plant has to depend on imports of hard coal to carry out power generation. The other remaining power plants in Turkey make use of the lignite which is produced in the country.

Coal, which includes both hard coal as well as lignite, accounts for almost 25 percent of electricity generation in Turkey. However, it is expected that in the years to come, the share of domestic coal in power generation may rise up to 30 percent; the other sources include gas, hydropower, oil and wind, accounting for 45.8 percent, 25.1 percent, 2.5 percent and 1 percent of electricity generation respectively. Almost 75 percent of the total lignite production is directed towards electric power generation.

The two most important lignite deposits are Afsin-Elbistan and Sivas-Kangal coal fields. Both these coal fields are operated by private companies under contract. Despite large scale reserves and considerable amount of coal production in the country, Turkey depends heavily on imports of hard coal. On an average the country requires to import as much as 16 mt of hard coal primarily from Australia, the US, South Africa and Russia. The main areas of consumption apart from power generation include steel making and cement production. It is expected that the demand for energy, which has more than trebled in the past two decades, will continue to rise till the year 2020.

Currently, there are 15 coal fired plants in Turkey, and the Energy Market Regulatory Agency has approved applications for an additional 46 large coal fired power plants. These plants will have the capacity to produce more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of electricity in Turkey.

The state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises, also known as TTK, has a de-facto monopoly on the production, processing and distribution of hard coal which is extracted in the Zonguldak Basin. TTK is engaged in operating five deep mines in the Basin and has issued production licenses to private sector companies, since there are substantial volumes of untapped resources of hard coal in the Zonguldak Basin.

As far as lignite is concerned, almost 40 percent of the country's total deposits are found in the Afsin-Elbistan Basin in south-eastern Anatolia. The geological and economically mineable reserves in the region are estimated to be around 3000 mt. Apart from Afsin-Elbistan, the second largest lignite producing region is the Soma Basin, while the other important deposits of lignite in Turkey are located in the Bursa, Can and Mugla Basins. Almost 90 percent of the total lignite production is carried out through opencut mines. However, there are some underground mining activities which are carried out in the Soma Basin.

The quality of lignite found in Turkey is poor, with only 7 percent of the total reserves known to have a heat content of about 3000 kilocalories per kg.

The recent years have seen a number of thermal power plant construction companies from China, Korea and India enter the Turkish market. With this trend in place, the western companies find it difficult to compete with the low pre-qualification bid which is quoted by these Asian companies. This has resulted in Indian, Chinese and Korean companies gaining a stronghold in the energy sector of Turkey.

In the past few years, there has been a decline in Turkish coal production, but the government is taking adequate steps to ensure that the energy sector of Turkey grows at a rapid pace. For this to happen, Turkish coal production will have to gain momentum in order to reduce the country's dependence on imports.

This will certainly take a while to happen, but steps have been taken in right earnest, which will certainly bear fruit sometime in the future.

Source: Coal Insights