Turkey's natural gas imports from Russia in May 2020 fell by almost 62% compared to the same month of last year, official data showed.

The country's total gas imports in May decreased by 0.5% compared to the same period last year, according to the Turkish energy watchdog data released Wednesday.

Natural gas imports in May dropped to 2.67 billion cubic meters, compared to 2.68 billion cubic meters last May, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said in its monthly natural gas market report.

In May 2020, the country imported 1.22 billion cubic meters of natural gas via pipelines, while 1.45 billion cubic meters were purchased as LNG, EMRA data showed. This marked a 44.6% drop in pipeline gas imports and a 205.5% increase in LNG imports.

Azerbaijan was Turkey's top gas supplier with 881 million cubic meters, followed by Qatar and Russia with 520 and 339 million cubic meters, respectively.

In May, Turkey's gas imports from Azerbaijan and Qatar grew respectively by 14.5% and 288%, while the volume of Russian imports fell by 62% compared to the same period of last year.

Consumption down 24.2%

Turkey's total gas consumption decreased by 24.2% to approximately 2.24 billion cubic meters this May, compared to 2.95 billion cubic meters in May last year.

Household consumption grew by 4.6% to 825 million cubic meters while the use of natural gas in power plants was down by 46.2% to 269 million cubic meters during the same period.

The amount of natural gas in storage in May increased by 36% to 2.15 billion cubic meters, from 1.58 billion cubic meters in May last year.