Turkey’s LNG import share of total gas imports increased from 27% in the first half of 2019 to 43% for the same period this year, Yunus Emre Icik, deputy head of Natural Gas Supply and Export Department at Turkey’s crude oil and natural gas pipeline trading company (BOTAS) said last Thursday.
Speaking at the World LNG Virtual Summit and Awards, Icik confirmed a total daily send-out capacity of more than 120 million cubic meters from Turkey’s two land-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and its two Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRU).
He explained that from this infrastructure, Turkey has been able to benefit from low LNG prices to supply almost half of its peak daily natural gas demand.
Out of the increased share of LNG imports in Turkey, the most dramatic rise was seen when LNG prices dropped to very low levels in May.
"Turkey’s LNG share increased three times compared to the previous year [in May]. For the first six-month average, Turkey’s LNG import share out of total gas imports increased from 27% to 43%," he noted.
Turkey supports its energy supply security through its LNG and FSRU terminal infrastructure and meets nearly 45-50 billion cubic meters of its annual consumption.
Turkey’s Marmara Ereglisi LNG Terminal has a capacity of 5.9 million tonnes while the Aliaga Egegaz LNG Terminal has an annual capacity of 4.4 million tonnes.
Turkey's first FSRU was launched in Aliaga, Izmir in December 2016. In early February 2018, a second FSRU with 20 million cubic meters of send-out capacity per day was launched in the country’s southernmost Hatay province.
The country plans to expand its LNG storage capacity by adding a third FSRU in Saros Bay, north of the Gallipoli Peninsula in northwestern Turkey by 2021.
