BOTAS, Gazprom working on gas trading center in Istanbul - Turkish energy minister
BAKU. May 27 (Interfax) - Turkey and Russia are working to create a trading platform for the sale of natural gas, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
"We continue to work with the Russian side on the creation of a gas trading center, in particular, on a gas pricing concept of. Over the next few months, we want to create a joint gas trading center between BOTAS and Gazprom as part of the Istanbul Financial Center, that is a center where the price of gas will be determined," he said.
The minister also said that Turkey planned to become not only center to trade gas but also to export it.
He said Turkey's domestic demand for natural gas in Turkey was 50 billion cubic meters per year at present, but investments in gas infrastructure will enable the country to receive 70-80 bcm annually.
"The availability of powerful gas transmission infrastructure will allow us to export these volumes to Europe. We are already exporting gas to Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia for the first time. At the same time, we aim to become not only a gas center where gas prices are set along similar lines to the trading platform in the Netherlands, but at the same time, to physically export gas to specific buyers and countries," Bayraktar said.
Bayraktar also said that thanks to the LNG terminals built in the country, Turkey can now meet 50% of domestic demand with liquefied natural gas.
"Liquefied natural gas is one of the pillars of diversification. Daily capacity for receiving LNG in Turkey is 160 million cubic meters. Turkey is technically able to receive liquefied gas, even if all other resources are suddenly turned off," he said.
He also said Turkey planned to increase the capacity of its own underground gas storage facilities to 12 bcm by 2028.
"We've increased the capacity of our underground gas storage facilities from 2.8 bcm to 5.8 bcm. Now we plan to increase it to 12 bcm, which will enable us store 25% of our domestic gas demand. There are plans to increase the capacity of the underground gas storage facility in Tuz Golu and in Silivri," Bayraktar said.