Turkey’s state-owned gas importer Botas, a unit of Turkish Petroleum Corp, expects to receive a brand new floating storage and regasification unit by the year-end.
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries is still testing the FSRU named Ertugrul Gazi, Botas said in a statement posted on its website.
Once the Korean yard wraps up testing, the vessel will head for Turkey where it is expected by the end of this year.
Botas said it owns the vessel and will use it to replace an existing chartered vessel at the Dortyol terminal in Hatay on Turkey’s East Mediterranean coast.
The new vessel has a regasification capacity of 28 million cubic meters per day and a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters.
To remind, the Dortyol facility currently uses the 263,000-cbm MOL FSRU Challenger, world’s largest such vessel.
Besides this vessel, there is also one other FSRU operating in Turkey at the privately-owned Etki terminal in Aliaga, Izmir. The 170,000-cbm Turquoise belongs to Pardus Energy.
Thanks to the FSRUs, Turkey has the ability to receive gas from different countries or spot market, contrary to the limited pipeline gas supplies, Botas said.