Turkish Energy Minister in the US

TEXAS, USA - MARCH 07: Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak attend the CERA Week Energy Conference 2017 by IHS Markit in Houston, Texas, United States on March 07, 2017. Albayrak delivers a speech in the conference as well. Turkey’s main goal in the energy sector is diversification, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak told a U.S. conference Tuesday. “More than half of our electricity generation is from gas,” he told the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas. “This can't be sustainable, so we changed this strategy. “We are aiming to diversify our natural gas portfolio in the following years.” The last 15 years have seen Turkey’s GDP rise from $200 billion to more than $800 billion, while public debt to GDP ratio shrunk from 80 percent in 2002 to around 30 percent today. “You have to invest in energy to meet this growth and your growth targets,” Albayrak said. “Turkey invested more than $75 billion in energy during this period... Total installed electricity capacity moved from approximately 30,000 megawatts in 2002 to almost 80,000 MW right now.” Turkey’s average annual electricity growth currently stands at more than 6 percent, making it the leading country within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Albayrak said. (footage by Yasin Öztürk / Anadolu AGENCY / getty imageS)