Turkish Pipeline Operator Botas Laying The Groundwork For A LNG Bunkering Hub
Turkish pipeline operator, Botas, announced on September 9 that it was laying the groundwork for a regional bunkering hub, leveraging its geographical advantage.
According to Botas, it had signed agreements with Japanese Sumitomo and Arkas Bunkering, a marine fuels company, to use LNG as ship fuel. Turkey is better placed to serve as an intermediary hub for Middle East suppliers and their European customers, considering its geographical position.
As such, Botas could establish an LNG supplier centre to capitalize on the country’s strategic position to service the markets in the Eastern Mediterranean regions. The company cited International Maritime Organisation’s regulations on maritime emissions as one of the major justifications behind the anticipated project.
“LNG, which is a more environmentally friendly alternative among conventional marine fuels, has the potential to be the most preferred ship fuel of the future due to its low cost,” the company said.
Although Botas has expressed its plans to build a massive LNG bunkering hub, Turkey has not yet established the availability of the infrastructure to facilitate largescale LNG bunkering.
However, the country has a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) facility in the southern province of Hatay. The Hatay FSRU is located at Dortyol LNG with a regasification capacity of 28mn m3/day. The unit received its first-ever LNG in July, handling 132,000-m3 from Algeria.