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All the 81 provinces of the country will have access to natural gas following the new regulations and investments, president of Turkey's energy watchdog, EMRA, said Thursday. 

"We reached a decision to provide compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the cities, which still do not have connection to the natural gas grid," said Mustafa Yilmaz, President of Energy Market Regulatory Authority, EMRA, during a speech at "Istrade 2016 Energy Trading and Supply Summit" in Istanbul.

Currently, there are 76 cities and more than 200 towns among the 81 provinces of the country, which have access to natural gas distributed by pipelines, Yilmaz informed.

Turkey, reliant on imported natural gas, tries to increase the availability of natural gas to residents and industries as an alternative to coal, which pollutes and damages the environment.

- Renewable capacity to increase 40 thousand MW

Yilmaz also mentioned Turkey's efforts on promoting renewable energy by facilitating investments and easing of bureaucracy.

"For renewables, private companies invested in 509 new projects with over 16 thousand megawatts of capacity during the last three years," Yilmaz said. 

"We expect to increase Turkey's installed renewable power capacity to 40 thousand MW from about 32 thousand MW," he said 

Reporting by Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu 

Writing by Huseyin Erdogan 

Anadolu Agency  

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