Turkey to build LNG terminal and gas storage units
Apr. 6, 1998 Turkey will build a $ 600 mm terminal to convert LNG to usable natural gas at its western port of Aliaga, Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer said. Three gas storage units are also planned, he said.
The Aliaga LNG plant, near Izmir town on the Aegean sea, will have the capacity to produce 6 bn cm of gas from LNG, he said. It will be the second such terminal in Turkey after Marmara Ereglisi, located to the west of Istanbul.
Ersumer said the government had so far received bids from Amoco, Mobil and Total for the project, but had not decided on the method of commissioning it.
"We may issue a tender, or it could be a turnkey project. We can also build it ourselves, for which we have funds, and later lease it to operators. We also have the build-operate-transfer method for this project," he said. "The decision will be made and the project will have to begin this year," Ersumer added.
Turkey, which at the moment is investing in natural gas to lessen its dependence on coal and oil, plans to
get LNG from Qatar, Yemen and Egypt. It is already buying LNG equivalent to about 2.5 bn cm of gas from Algeria.
Ersumer said the government had settled an issue with maritime authorities on the terminal site, where there is also a petrochemical plant, a refinery, a fuel-oil and an LPG plant. "They have assigned us a ship dismantling area to be used for the LNG plant," Ersumer said.
The government awarded as well a contract last year to build a 1,400 MW gas-fired power plant near the site.
Ersumer said a similar terminal was planned for southern Iskenderun port, but it would be considered after the Aliaga plant has been completed.
Ersumer also said the government planned to begin this year to build three underground gas storage units. "One of them will be near the Tuz Golu (Salt Lake) area," he said of the central Anatolian site which will be at the intersection point of several planned gas pipeline projects.
The other storage unit will be at the offshore Silivri gas extraction plant at thesea of Marmara which has up to 4 bn cm of usable reserves, he said.
Gas from the Russian-Turkish pipeline and from the nearby LNG terminal would be trapped at the sub-sea cavities, from where Turkey is currently producing gas, he said.
Ersumer said a 500-mm-cm unused storage unit in Bulgaria, which is on the route of Russian-Turkish gas pipeline, would be rehabilitated for storing gas to "hedge against winter supply changes and fluctuations in prices." Work to improve the Bulgarian storage unit is expected to begin soon.
|
|
|
 |
