Turkey's Ministry for Energy and Natural Resources has suspended 300 staff following the failed military coup attempt on July 15, adding to uncertainties about the overall stability of the country and the continued effective implementation of energy policy.

According to a statement issued late Tuesday via the ministry's Twitter account, the 300 are being investigated for possible connections to an alleged terror group which the government is blaming for being behind the coup attempt.

No indication was given as to the identity of the 300, or their level of seniority.

The energy ministry has a total staff allocation of 2,795, of which 1,685 are employed in the ministry, according to the ministry's 2015 report. Some 1,100 posts are referred to as vacant, the majority of them being standard civil service grades as opposed to "specialists."

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This suggests that the suspensions represent just under 11% of the ministry's total staff allocation or just under 18% of the number of staff actually employed.

While there is no immediate indication of whether the suspensions will affect Turkey's position as an oil and gas transit route, or its energy projects and policies, the fact that they constitute as much as 18% of the ministry's active staff suggests the ministry's operations may be severely compromised until replacements can be appointed.

Turkey has been thrown into chaos by the failed coup attempt, which left close to 300 dead and around 1500 injured.

Although it only lasted a few hours and appears to have been actively supported by only a small part of the Turkish military, the subsequent reaction from the Turkish government in Ankara has alleged a far wider conspiracy. The government has arrested, sacked or suspended tens of thousands of military personnel, judges, prosecutors, teachers and staff at government ministries, prompting allegations that it is using the failed coup as an excuse to "purge" staff not fully supportive of its Islamist agenda.

Energy minister Berat Albayrak has made no statement on the coup attempt or the suspensions from his ministry, and has not appeared in public since joining his father-in-law, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for a press conference in Istanbul early Saturday morning when it had become apparent that the coup had failed.

Separately, Turkey's energy regulator Enerji Piyasasi Duzenleme Kurumunda (EPDK) announced Wednesday that it will fine petroleum retailers which either closed down, refused to sell fuel or illegally raised retail prices to "exorbitant levels" in the wake of the coup.

In a written statement EPDK head Mustafa Yilmaz said that such actions by "coup opportunists" could not be tolerated and would not go unpunished.

The EPDK would be using it's automated tracking systems to establish which fuel retailers had closed down and would issue fines where necessary, he said.

On Tuesday, the EPDK announced that it had suspended 25 staff members, including a group head and several "experts", on suspicion of connections to the Hizmet religious group of US-based Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen, the group alleged to be behind the coup.

The EPDK also said it was planning to take action against energy companies with links to illegal organizations.

Over the past 18 months the government has seized a number of companies alleged to be connected to Gulen's organization including Ipek Enerji, which holds petroleum exploration licenses for two blocks in southeast Turkey.

The EPDK is responsible for administering Turkey's petroleum, gas and electricity markets, issuing licenses for the importation, storage, transit distribution of crude oil, gas and petroleum products as a well as for the generation, transit and distribution of electricity.

--David O'Byrne, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Alisdair Bowles, alisdair.bowles@spglobal.com

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