LNG

Greek gas company DEPA has been awarded the tender for one LNG held by Bulgargaz. Delivery of the cargo will be to the Marmara Ereğlisi LNG terminal in Turkey.

Turkey, an LNG importer and with plans to increase domestic production from Black Sea fields and the main route to Europe for natural gas from Azerbaijan, has raised the prices of natural gas and power by 20 percent for industrial users amid energy secuirty concerns in the South Caucasus region bordering Eastern Europe.

Jan 3 (LNGJ) - The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez has held talks with Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Hristov on the European Union nation receiving regasified LNG supplies from Turkey.

   The talks covered negotiating to reserve a capacity of 1 billion cubic metres per annum from one or more of Turkey’s four LNG import facilities and for the volumes to be transferred by pipeline to the Bulgarian border by the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp. (BOTAS) network.

Turkey, Europe’s second-largest liquefied natural gas importer, has deployed a new floating storage and regasification unit at the port of Aliaga, near Izmir.

Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp. (Botas) said one of the world's biggest ship-to-ship liquified natural gas transfers and regasfication operations was taking place in the Mediterranean port of Dortyol.

The operation involves the 210,100 cubic metres capacity Qatari Q-Flex carrier “Al Sadd” and the Japanese-owned “MOL FSRU Challenger”, the world’s largest floating storage and regasification unit with capacity of 263,000 cubic metres.

Turkey currently has four import facilities, two FSRUs and two onshore terminals.

The regional director of Botas utilities, Mehmet Tecimen, said that the two ships would take two days to conduct the transfer operation in which LNG will be regasified and injected into Turkey's natural gas pipeline system.

“This Botas chartered FSRU anchored in Dortyol is the largest FSRU in the world at 345 meters in length,” said Tecimen.

He noted that the vessel was commissioned at Dortyol port in February 2018 and this was its largest transfer to date.

The “MOL FSRU Challenger” has a regasification discharge capacity of 540 million cubic metres per day.

Botas signed a deal in September 2017 to receive 1.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Qatargas over a period of three years.

Turkey's first FSRU operations began in December 2016 in Aliaga port near Izmir to boost the nation’s LNG supplies.

Botas also operates Turkey’s oldest onshore import terminal, the Marmara Ereglisi facility, that has been on line since 1994.

There is a second onshore terminal owned by Turkish company EgeGaz and on line since 2006, also near Izmir, and a second FSRU, the “Neptune”, operating since December 2016 in the Aliaga industrial zone.

The Turkish government has said it was considering a fifth LNG import facility near Saros Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Oct 10 (LNGJ) - The 177,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Spirit of Hela” was unloading a cargo on October 10 at the Chinese Qingdao terminal owned by Sinopec from the Oceania nation of Papua New Guinea whose export plant is operated by ExxonMobil. The 75,500 cubic metres capacity Med-Class carrier “Cheikh Bouamama” will deliver a shipment on October 12 to the Cartagena terminal in southeast Spain from the Skikda plant in Algeria operated by Sonatrach. The 210,100 cubic metres capacity vessel “Al Ruwais” will deliver a shipment on October 14 to the Port Qasim facilities in Pakistan from the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar.

The 141,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “LNG Akwa Ibom” will unload a cargo on October 15 at the Indian Dahej terminal near Mumbai from the Bonny island plant in Nigeria. The 176,300 cubic metres capacity carrier “Rioja Knutsun” will deliver a US shipment on October 16 to the Huelva terminal in southwest Spain from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana, owned by Cheniere Energy. The 177,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “LNG Lagos II” will deliver a Nigerian cargo on October 17 to the Marmara Ereglisi terminal in Turkey.

The 210,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex carrier “Al Nuaman” is scheduled to deliver a Qatargas cargo on October 20 to the Belgian Zeebrugge terminal. The 150,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Ob River” will unload a shipment on October 20 at the Japanese Mitzushima terminal owned by Nippon Oil from the Russian Sakhalin Island plant.

Qatargas is set to become the key liquefied natural gas supplier to Turkey after Algeria under a medium-term sales and purchase agreement signed with Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corp. of Turkey, the fourth-largest net importing nation in Europe.

June 1 (LNGJ) - The 160,106 cubic metres capacity vessel “Kita LNG” is unloading a Qatari cargo on June 1 at the Egyptian import facilities at the port of Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suez, according to shipping data. The 215,000 cubic metres capacity “Al Utouriya” is scheduled to arrive on June 4 at the Kochi import terminal in the southwest Indian state of Kerala with a partial cargo from Qatar. The 173,400 cubic metres capacity vessel “Oak Spirit” is scheduled to arrive on June 2 at the Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana, operated by Cheniere Energy, to lift a cargo after previously delivering a shipment to the Argentine import facility at Bahia Blanca. The 147,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Dapeng Moon” will unload a shipment on June 9 at the Chinese Shenzhen terminal, operated by China National Offshore Oil Corp., from the Woodside Dampier export facilities in Western Australia.