Caspian Basin energy resources and Turkey's goal of becoming transit terminal

Energy, which has an important role in economic development and improvement of living standards, is in a strategic position in terms of maintaining the production activities of states on the way of industrialization. Energy also has an important effect on the determination of foreign policies of these states in order to maintain their existence. However, considering the fact that energy resources are not equally distributed all over the world, it has become inevitable that countries that want to have energy turn their eyes to the Caspian Basin, which has rich natural gas and oil deposits, where Russian sovereignty disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The unfair distribution of resources around the world has made it necessary to exchange between countries that have energy resources and countries that need energy resources. Turkey, having the proximity to the Caspian Basin and the historical and cultural ties with various countries in this region, acts as a natural bridge and transportation corridor due to its location between the energy producer Asian countries and the energy consumer European countries. Due to its geopolitical location between Asia and Europe continents, its location on the transit route to African countries, its active role in Mediterranean trade, its being a peninsula surrounded by seas on three sides and in terms of having important straits and ports; Turkey is becoming an important actor within the scope of energy policy. In this thesis, which has been prepared considering the importance of energy use from the past to the present, information on energy has been given and the global consumption of all energy resources in the world between 2009-2019 has been specified. It focuses on oil and natural gas in world energy resources and especially because it is examined the effects of oil and gas in the Caspian Basin to Turkey; considering the geopolitical and geographical positions of the Caspian Basin, the strategic importance of this region is mentioned.In addition, the conditions under which riparian countries possess and share the petroleum and natural gas in the region have been stated. By giving general information on oil and gas pipelines located in this region, thanks to its transport corridor role, Turkey's status has been mentioned On the Caspian energies. In this thesis' sections about Turkey, topics like oil and gas reserve quantities that Turkey has, oil and natural gas production, consumption and import amounts and The share of energy in the total import and export amount of Turkey are included. Turkey's crude oil and natural gas reserves quantities have been studied with data from the years 2009-2019. Turkey's international global oil imports between 2008-2019 and global natural gas imports between 2010-2019 are examined and the amount of oil supplied from the Caspian Basin countries between 2008-2019 and natural gas between 2010-2019 are also included. Oil and natural gas production in Turkey between the years of 2009-2019, petroleum consumption between 2009-2019 and natural gas consumption between 2010-2019 are indicated. Information about how much petroleum is converted into other types of petrolium based products of petroleum produced in Turkey's rafineries between the years 2009-2019 is also given. Information about Turkey's total import and export amount between the year 2013-2019 and the rate of energy export and energy imports between these years is determined.