Turkiye’s energy minister says the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, due to the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, indicates the importance of diversifying energy routes and will force the world to move towards forming a new energy structure.Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, discussed the effects of the crisis caused by Iran’s retaliatory blocking of the strait, calling the current global energy crisis “the mother of all crises”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listBayraktar argued that thanks to Turkiye’s extensive investments in energy and infrastructure, its geographical location between Asia and Europe, and the presence of oil and natural gas reserves in its region, it has become a pivotal country in the region in the field of energy, especially as it harbours two key pipelines, the “Blue Stream” and the “TurkStream”.The minister also suggested Ankara is well-suited to weather the crisis, as it has sufficient strategic energy reserves, with gas storage facilities that are 72 percent full, compared with Europe’s at just 28 percent.But Bayraktar said that the rising cost of oil and gas still burdens the state budget, as an increase in the price of a barrel of oil by $1 costs Ankara about $400m.The following is a transcript of Al Jazeera’s interview with the Turkish minister discussing the global energy crisis. It has been edite …
