Aerial view of an oil refinery plant in Aliaga, Izmir, Turkey, March 2022. As Europe reduces its reliance on Russian gas, Turkey is using LNG, infrastructure, and geography to strengthen its role in regional energy security. (Shutterstock/Merih Salmaz)

Turkey’s Bid to Become Europe’s Energy Hub

Share this link on Facebook

Share this page on X (Twitter)

Share this link on LinkedIn

Share this page on Reddit

Email a link to this page

As Europe reduces its reliance on Russian gas, Turkey is using LNG, infrastructure, and geography to strengthen its role in regional energy security.

Europe’s effort to reduce its dependence on Russian gas is reshaping the continent’s energy map. But it is also elevating a country that sits at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East: Turkey.

For decades, Europe’s energy security strategy was built around pipelines. Russian gas flowed westward through fixed networks that created economic interdependence and geopolitical leverage. Projects such as Nord Stream became symbols of this model, linking Russia directly to European consumers while reinforcing concerns about strategic dependence on Moscow.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered many of those assumptions. European governments moved rapidly to diversify supply, secure alternative sources of gas, and reduce exposure to Russian energy. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) became a central pillar of that strategy.

The rise of LNG represents more than a change in how gas is transported. It is changing the geopolitical logic of energy itself. Pipeline networks created fixed relationships between producers, transit states, and consumers. LNG introduces flexibility. Cargoes can be redirected, suppliers diversified, and new routes established with far greater ease. As a result, influence increasingly belongs not only to those who produce energy, but also to those who control the infrastructure through which it flows.

Turkey’s Opportunity in Europe’s New Energy Map

This shift is creating new strategic winners. Turkey hopes to be one of them. Much attention has focused on Germany’s new LNG terminals, Poland’s efforts to expand import capacity, and Greece’s ambition to become a gateway for southeastern Europe. Yet a less discussed transformation is taking place further south. Turkey is positioning itself not merely as an energy transit state, but as a regional energy hub capable of shaping how gas moves between producers and consumers across Eurasia.

The distinction matters.

A transit country simply hosts infrastructure. An energy hub shapes flows, attracts investment, and gains strategic influence. Ankara increasingly appears determined to become the latter.

Turkey’s advantages begin with geography. Few countries occupy a more strategically valuable position. To its east lie the energy producers of the........

© The National Interest