Türkiye’s state-owned natural gas and LNG firm Botas has signed a deal with US energy giant ExxonMobil to buy liquefied natural gas from the latter.
According to a statement by Botas, the company’s general manager, Abdulvahit Fidan, and Matthew Chandler, president of ExxonMobil LNG, signed the cooperation deal in Washington on Wednesday.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, who is on a official visit to the US, witnessed the signing.
Under the agreement, Türkiye plans to receive up to 2.5 million tons of LNG per year for 10 years, Botas said.
Botas did not say whether this deal is a memorandum or a heads of agreement which would be converted into a sales and purchase agreement.
The firm also did not reveal the source of the supplies or the start date of the supplies.
“The US is already one of our important suppliers of LNG,” Bayraktar said in a social media post.
“With this agreement, which is planned to be long-term, we will take another step towards diversifying our resources,” he said.
“We will continue to contribute to the energy supply security of both our country and our region,” Bayraktar said.
Botas LNG business
Last month, Botas signed a 10-year SPA with state-owned producer Oman LNG.
Under the deal, Oman LNG will supply Botas with 1 million metric tonnes per annum of LNG, starting in 2025.
Prior to this, Botas and Algeria’s LNG producer, Sonatrach, extended their LNG supply deal for three more years.
Botas will continue to buy 4.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) LNG per year, or about 3.2 mtpa, from Botas for three more years until 2027.
Botas operates the Marmara Ereglisi onshore terminal in Turkey, as well as the FSRU-based Dortyol facility and the FSRU-based Saros terminal.
There is also one other FSRU operating in Türkiye at the privately-owned Etki terminal in Aliaga, Izmir, while Egegaz operates the Izmir Aliaga LNG facility.
Türkiye increased its LNG import capacity to boost its energy security and to become an international gas hub.
In April last year, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz received the first LNG cargo via Türkiye from the US as part of a deal it signed with Botas.
Botas and Bulgargaz signed the deal in January, allowing the latter access to Turkish LNG import terminals and the grid.