Shell to expand from wholesale to retail electricity market in Turkey

The Shell company is getting ready to enter the electricity retail market in Turkey after three years of operations in the wholesale market, Turkish media reported adding that the company will focus on industrial consumers. The company operates its natural gas and electricity supply in Turkey as Shell Energy and has had a presence in the country since 1923.

Shell is also planning to expand its natural gas, electricity and non-carbon energy operations, the media reports said.

Shell Energy Europe CEO David Wells said that the company is set to start retail electricity sales in Turkey following retail sales of power to industrial consumers in Great Britain, Germany and Italy. “The Turkish energy sector has achieved quick growth as the country’s energy demands increase,” Wells said is quoted as saying.

Shell has been operating on the Turkish natural gas market for ten years as the first private sector exporter of that resource, the Shell Energy CEO said and added that the natural gas market in the country has not been liberalized like the electricity market since about 80 percent of the natural gas market is controlled by the state-operated Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ).

The Shell Energy A.S. parent company Royal Dutch Shell decided to expand into the renewable energy market because its experts are predicting that the global demand for oil will peak over the next decade in favor of renewable power sources.

Earlier this year, Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden said the company had changed its mindset because of low oil prices adding that Shell will reveal plans for a greater presence on the renewable energy market, with focus on electricity because of the boom in electric vehicles.

Shell said it plans to spend USD 1 billion (EUR 850 million) a year on its ‘New Energies’ division, which was set up in 2016 to develop hydrogen fuel cells and biofuels for the aviation and shipping industries to replace oil.

Shell is already the largest trader of renewable power in the US.