Ankara, Turkey: Gas Compression Failures leave residents shivering; warning issued to not use gas appliances

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Ankara - Turkish Daily News

The state-owned Turkish Pipeline Company (BOTAS), Turkish Electricity Cooperation (TEAS) and Turkish Electricity Distribution Cooperation (TEDAS) issued a joint press statement announcing that restrictions on electricity and gas will end in a few days.

"The harsh winter conditions are still affecting the country, and because of this there are some delays to repairing faults, although we are trying to solve the electricity and gas problems. We have set up a Crisis Desk at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources," said the statement.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Cumhur Ersumer said that ministry officials in the city were giving Ankara the gas they had promised. "But Ankara uses more gas than had been agreed. So it means that they have more subscribers than they told us of. And we can all see what is happening. But if the weather improves and the compressor is repaired these problems can be solved," said Ersumer.

The general director of BOTAS, Gokhan Yardim, said that the problem with the natural gas compressor in Eskisehir had happened again and that gas pressure fell from 20 bars to 9.5 bars, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Yardim said that they repaired the compressor on Thursday morning but the problem had rearisen, so the gas pressure fell again on Thursday evening.

Electricity, Gas and Bus - Ankara (EGO) officials warned people not to use appliances which work on natural gas. "It might be very dangerous to use natural gas appliances. Because the natural gas pressure is low in Ankara and it can cause problems with your heaters and other appliances," said EGO officials. These are Ankara's coldest days, but people are now even colder at home and in their offices because these places cannot be heated. This is because heating systems are not working in Ankara these days due to "the natural gas problem" not having been solved for many weeks.

Every day BOTAS officials say "the problem will be solved today" and every day people believe them and hope to have a warm home. However, every day people realize the announcements of the BOTAS officials are just lip service and that nothing has changed. The officials say the cold weather is the cause of the problem. But Ankara residents complain that if this natural gas system does not work in cold weather, why would people need to use their heaters in summer? Ankara residents have started to rebel against "the natural gas problem."

But what is this natural gas problem which has been insoluble for many weeks and which has sentenced the people of Ankara to freeze? According to the BOTAS officials the compressor in Eskisehir, which compresses natural gas for Ankara, froze, so natural gas was given to Ankara by another compressor in Pendik. BOTAS said that the Pendik compressor was not strong enough to compress gas for Ankara so gas pressure fell. Meanwhile BOTAS said that they had bought the compressor machine from Ukraine, and so they informed Ukrainian officials of the problem, and Botas expects technical service members to come to Turkey to repair the compressor.

At the same time the people of Ankara who cannot use natural gas for heating or cooking, cannot use electricity either. TEDAS and TEAS announced that electricity will be cut for specific periods a day in order to avoid greater problems in the future. So electricity will be cut three for hours a day, one-and-a-half hours in the mornings and again in the evenings.

People say that these kind of cuts have not been seen since the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, and this is the fault of the 1990s governments. People also say Turkey has a very big energy shortage which the government has to solve because the 21st century is the age of technology so these difficulties should have been resolved in the last century.

And another problem is with water services in Ankara. Ankara Water Service Authorities (ASKI) said that the water shortages were not their fault. "Some 95 percent of the water pumped to Ankara comes from electric pumps, so electricity cuts cause water cuts. If the electricity organizations solve the power shortages we can solve the water problem easily," said the ASKI officials.

But the people of Ankara do not care about the problems officials are having with each other. Every organization blames someone else, but Ankara residents still suffer gas, electricity and water shortages, are still cold and still cannot use their heaters, ovens and showers. The people of Ankara hope this problem will be solved as soon as possible so they can warm themselves again. Also this problem does not much enhance the image of the capital city of a country which is full of foreign embassies and is on the threshold of becoming a full member of the European Union.

If you can not get warm by natural gas, use coal According to research by the State Institute of Statistics (DIE) 85.9 percent of Turkey uses coal for heating. There are 11,549,759 homes in Turkey, of which 95.9 percent use coal and firewood, 2.8 percent LPG, 1 percent natural gas and the rest other fuels. So maybe we need to convert from gas to coal to get warm.

Link to story:

http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/dom.htm#d5

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 31, 2000

Answers

"Turkey has a very big energy shortage which the government has to solve because the 21st century is the age of technology so these difficulties should have been resolved in the last century."

This kind of pushes the "International Y2K Gag Order".

Carl,up the good work. Thank you.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), January 31, 2000.


Its no wonder they use mostly coal, they have too many earthquakes. They must have terrible air pollution.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 31, 2000.

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