Turkey’s brand new FSRU, owned by Botas, has finally left Hyundai Heavy’s yard in South Korea.
To remind, Botas, a unit of Turkish Petroleum Corp, said last year it had expected the FSRU named Ertugrul Gazi to arrive in Turkey by the end of 2020.
Local media reports suggest the newbuild vessel should arrive at the Dortyol terminal in Hatay on Turkey’s East Mediterranean coast in April.
The new vessel has a regasification capacity of 28 million cubic meters per day and a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters.
The Dortyol facility currently uses the 263,000-cbm MOL FSRU Challenger, world’s largest such vessel, which will be replaced by the newbuild.
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.
Turkey also plans to add another FSRU in Saros Bay, north of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
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 previously said.
Turkey increased its LNG imports by almost 19 percent last year, boosted by spot volumes from Qatar and the US, according to a recent report.
The country’s LNG imports reached 15.07 bcm in 2020, accounting for 31.3 percent of total gas imports.