Turkey's new liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) arrives in the Aliağa district of İzmir today. According to Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey's first FSRU, which entered service in 2016 and is run by Etki Liman İşletmeleri, will be replaced by the new larger-capacity FSRU today. The first LNG floating vessel has a storage capacity of 139,000 cubic meters and was able to provide 14 million cubic meters of gas to the Turkish network per day. The new FSRU, manufactured by Hyundai Heavy Industries, left South Korea on June 11 to arrive in the Turkish port. With a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of gas, it will also compress 28 million cubic meters of natural gas to the system on a daily basis.
The new terminal, therefore, will make further contributions to Turkey's gas storage capacity and daily compression amount, further invigorating the country's energy security.
Having recently completed construction, the FSRU due to come today will begin operating for the first time in Turkey and will be recorded as the third LNG floating unit. After the completion of necessary tests at the port, the FSRU will be connected to the national natural gas storage system.
The facility will store the LNG that Petroleum Pipeline Corporation Company (BOTAŞ) purchases from various countries, including Qatar and Algeria, and will regasify it to compress into the national system.
FSRUs have a different feature than other shore LNG terminals. Storage and regasification of LNG imported by vessels are provided by operating the FSRU berthed at the Terminal jetty. The FSRU has the ability to regasify the liquid stored in its tanks utilizing the existing vaporizer units.
Around 300 million cubic meters of natural gas enters the Turkish natural gas system through 11 different points on a daily basis. This capacity will be raised to 400 million cubic meters by 2023.
BOTAŞ also has an FSRU in Hatay's Dörtyol district, which can compress 20 million cubic meters of gas per day. It has a storage capacity of 263,000 cubic meters - the largest in the world.
Strengthening LNG infrastructure and increasing the number of LNG imports has become a prioritized energy policy of Turkey in the last decade. As a result of intensified efforts to fortify Turkey's energy supply security and diversify supply channels, Turkey's dependency on pipeline gas saw a dramatic decrease to 77.5 percent in 2018 from 88 percent in 2017.
On the other hand, the share of LNG in gas imports rose to 22.5 percent with 11.3 billion cubic meters. Turkey's total nameplate capacity for LNG is now 42.7 billion cubic meters of gas per year, corresponding to nearly 90 percent of gas imports last year. Currently, Turkey operates four LNG terminals
two of them are floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) and the remaining two are land facilities. The LNG terminal in Marmara Ereğlisi, located 120 kilometers west of Istanbul in the northern Marmara Sea, currently operates with a capacity of 5.9 million tons. The terminal is capable of sending out 8 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Another land terminal is located in the industrial Aliağa district of the Aegean province of İzmir with a capacity of 4.4 million tons of LNG. The İzmir terminal operated by Egegaz has a regasification and compression capacity for 6 billion cubic meters per year.
