Turkey to expand LNG storage capacity with 3rd FSRU

ANKARA

Turkey plans to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage capacity by adding a third Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Saros Bay, north of the Gallipoli Peninsula, in northwestern Turkey by 2021, the Deputy Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Oct. 8.

Speaking during a panel organized by the Turkish Academy of Science, Bayraktar stressed “the critical importance” of natural gas for Turkey’s clean energy policies.

“Ensuring Turkey’s natural gas supply security and improving the infrastructure is very important. We have added two FSRUs in Aliağa [İzmir] and Hatay-Dörtyol to our system. Our efforts are ongoing for the third one in Saros [Bay]. It will be added to our infrastructure next year,” Bayraktar said.

Turkey’s first FSRU was launched in the Aegean province of İzmir’s Aliağa district at the end of 2016.
The second FSRU, with 20 million cubic meters of send-out capacity per day, was launched in the Mediterranean province of Hatay in early February 2018.

Turkey imported 45.3 bcm natural gas last year, paying approximately $12 billion.

Besides pipelines, Turkey improved its LNG infrastructure in a bid to increase the share of cheaper LNG in its natural gas mix to around 33 percent in 2020 from 28 percent in 2019, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Ministry.

Turkey’s major LNG suppliers are Qatar, the United States, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt.

Turkey’s natural gas imports in the January-June period of this year dropped by 3.5 percent to 22.5 billion cubic meters (bcm). Out of this amount, Turkey imported 12.1 bcm via pipeline and 10.3 bcm as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In July, natural gas imports decreased by 4.5 percent compared to the same month of 2019, according to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK). The country imported 2.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas via pipelines, while 509 million cubic meters (mcm) was purchased as LNG, the data showed.

Azerbaijan was Turkey’s top gas import destination in July, supplying 1.09 bcm of natural gas while Russia and Iran followed with 843 and 664 mcm, respectively.

Turkey’s natural gas imports from Iran and Russia declined by 44.8 percent and 41.5 percent, respectively in the first half of this year compared to the same period of 2019, according to EPDK data.

In the first half of this year, Turkey, under its long-term LNG contract with Algeria, imported the highest LNG volume at 2.99 bcm.

However, the highest spot LNG volume was imported from Qatar at 2.85 bcm, showing a 124 percent increase compared to the first half of 2019.

Turkey’s spot LNG imports from the United States also grew by 144 percent to reach 2.16 bcm during the same period.

In the first half of 2020, Turkey received LNG from new source countries with imports of 633 million cubic meters (mcm) of spot LNG from Trinidad and Tobago followed by Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Egypt, Norway and Spain.
Turkey also exported 203 mcm of gas to Greece during this period.