157 Souleimanov / KrauS: TurKey: an imporTanT eaST-WeST energy Hub Turkey: An ImporTAnT eAsT-WesT energy Hub Emil Souleimanov and Josef Kraus Dr. Souleimanov is an assistant professor at the Institute of International Studies, Department of Russian and East European Studies at Charles University in Prague. Dr. Kraus is a member of the Faculty of Social Studies in the International Institute of Political Science at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. 1 © 2012, The Authors Middle East Policy © 2012, Middle East Policy Council R ecent years have witnessed frantic efforts by the European Union (EU) to diversify its supply of strategic resources — crude oil and natural gas — to reduce its risky dependence on imports from a single country, Russia. At present, the share of oil imported from Russia to EU countries is at least 25 percent, and Russian natural gas accounts for a full 40 percent. In contrast to the situation in northern, western and southern Europe, the countries of central and eastern Europe are (almost) totally or very highly dependent on natural gas from the Russian Federation. In Turkey, the diversiication efforts of EU countries it that country’s economic and political interests. With its stable eco- nomic growth, Turkey itself has not only an ever-increasing demand for crude oil and natural gas, but also a strong interest in becoming a key Eurasian energy cor- ridor. Achieving the standing of a strategic energy crossroads at the boundaries of Russian Siberia, the Caspian region, the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, in gen- eral, is central to the foreign-policy think- ing of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as it strives for accession to the European Union. 2 Turkey is located in or adjacent to re- gions where approximately three-quarters of known deposits of crude oil and natural gas are found, although it has only meager supplies of these resources inside its bor- ders. Turkey produces about 1 billion cubic meters (m 3 ) of natural gas annually, while it consumes about 36 billion m 3 , a level of dependency on imports greater than 95 percent. In the case of crude oil, its level of dependency on imports is 93 percent. 3 Since the beginning of the Caspian oil boom more than a decade ago, Ankara has been attempting to play a signiicant role in the transport of strategic raw materials on the East-West route. The extraordinarily favorable position of the Asia Minor pen- insula offers great transit potential for raw materials from the Caspian Sea, Russia and even the Persian Gulf/Middle East and Northern Iraq. Although the leading role in Turkish-EU energy cooperation is current- ly being played by the Brussels lagship project Nabucco — which is intended to secure supplies of natural gas from Cas- pian gas ields for the (Central) European