Turkey’s state-owned natural gas and LNG firm, Botas, has finalized a 925 million euro ($927 million) three-year loan with Deutsche Bank to buy liquefied natural gas.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement the transaction would allow Botas to diversify its spot LNG purchases from suppliers mainly in Europe and the Middle East.
The loan, which can be extended in size, is guaranteed by Turkey’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance, according to the statement.
Responsible for 95 percent of gas supplies in Turkey, Botas would use the facility to partially meet its LNG purchase requirements from a list of pre-agreed international natural gas suppliers, Deutsche Bank said.
These include suppliers based in the United States, Asia (Singapore), Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom), and the Middle East (Algeria and Qatar), it said.
Also, this marks the first international loan for LNG purchases for Botas and comes at a time of surging prices and high inflation in Turkey.
Botas operates two out of four LNG import terminals in Turkey, namely the 4.5 mtpa Marmara Ereglisi facility and the 4.1 mtpa FSRU-based Dortyol terminal.
Turkey’s new FSRU, located at the Dortyol facility in the southern province of Hatay, received its first cargo of LNG in June last year.
The FSRU owned by Botas has a storage capacity of 170,000 cbm and 28 million cubic meters per day of regasification capacity.
Botas said in a statement last month that the FSRU had completed in total 24 ship-to-ship LNG transfer operations since its launch.