Turkey commissioned Friday the country's first LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at Aliaga, north of the port city of Izmir on the country's Aegean coast.
The unit, developed by ETKI Liman Isletmeleri Dogalgaz Ithalat ve Ticaret A.S. or ETKI, a subsidiary of Turkey's Kolin Holding, has a tanker unloading capacity of 6,000 cu m/hour with a maximum annual regasification capacity of 5.01475 Bcm/year, or 13.74 million cu m/day and storage capacity of 142,862 cu m of LNG.
Officials speaking at the opening ceremony did not say if it was already handling its first cargo, or when that might arrive.
Turkish energy minister Berat Albayrak announced two months ago that the unit would open before the end of the year and also that Turkey's state gas importer and transmission operator Botas was developing its own FSRU.
But he gave no details as to where it would be sited or when it was expected to be operational.
Turkey's state news agency Anatolia last month reported officials from Turkey's state energy regulator as saying two private groups had applied to the EPDK for licenses to develop FSRU facilities in Turkey.
Anatolia named the first of the two applicants as ADG Energy, a subsidiary of Turkey's Koc Holding which owns the country's sole oil refiner Tupras, and a major petroleum distribution chain Aygaz-Opet which has applied to develop an FSRU plant with an annual capacity of 5 Bcm/year capable of supplying 14 million cu m/day and with storage capacity of 170,000 cu m of LNG.
The second applicant was named as Maks Proje Gelistirme AS, which has applied to develop a plant with the capacity to handle 6 Bcm/year capable of supplying 17 million cu m/day of gas and with storage capacity of 173,000 cu m of LNG.
Turkey's interest in FSRUs follows several years of gas shortages during mid-winter peak demand periods in January and February when the input capacity of Botas' transmission grid is insufficient to meet demand, causing the state transmission operator to cut gas supplies to major CCGT plants.
In the wake of unseasonably cold weather in north west Turkey, Botas last week ordered private CCGT plant operators to cut their gas burn by 50% and ordered state generation company EUAS to either close its CCGT plants or switch to alternative fuels in an effort to cut demand and prevent cuts to residential and commercial consumers.
