Turkey charters first ever LNG FSRU

Turkey has reportedly chartered its first floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) for use as early as this winter, sources active in the gas sector told ICIS.

France-based ENGIE has reportedly chartered its 145,130 cubic metre GDF SUEZ Neptune FSRU for Turkey’s first offshore project located in the Aegean Sea close to the existing onshore Aliaga terminal.

ICIS could not establish the charter period and ENGIE would not comment.

Companies active in the gas market and interested in booking capacity at the terminal operated by the Turkish construction giant Kolin have until Thursday, 8 September to express their views.

Turkish private companies may be allowed to book half of the terminal’s 5.14 billion cubic metre/year capacity, according to operation procedures published by the regulator EPDK at the end of last month. Applications for capacity are expected to be finalised by 30 September.

However, a shipper active in the sector described the operation procedures as ‘foggy’, arguing that the incumbent BOTAS would be allowed to control most of the long-term capacity.

Meanwhile, the operators of the existing onshore Aliaga terminal are in the process of expanding its injection capacity from the current 16 million cubic metres (mcm)/day to 24mcm/day.

A source close to the operators EgeGaz said the expansion works should be finalised before the end of the year.

It is critical that Turkey should expand its LNG regasification and storage capacity to minimise the risk of gas curtailments during peak winter consumption as seen in previous years. aura.sabadus@icis.com