Gazprom Conducts Feasability Study to Construct Natural Gas Storage Stations in Turkey

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Russian natural gas company OAO Gazprom (PINK:OGZPY) (Moscow, Russia) is conducting a feasiblity study regarding the construction of natural gas storage facilities in Turkey. In 2011, Turkey imported nearly 61% of its natural gas needs, which included 27 billion cubic meters from Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas exporter. Gas consumption has increased three-fold in the past decade, reaching 40 billion cubic meters, which has made Turkey an attractive market with future potential.

"Whenever Turkey has had any problems with other providers, it has always looked to Gazprom to cover the needed amount of natural gas," said a Gazprom official. Due to harsh winter conditions, Turkey's daily natural gas consumption reached a record level of 192 million cubic meters on February 15. In 2011, Turkey's natural gas consumption averaged 171 million cubic meters per day during the winter.

Gazprom officials also added that the company was forced to use its underground natural gas storage facilities in Europe to meet the country's needs and redirected 38 million cubic meters per day to Turkey. Gazprom would like for Turkey to have its own underground natural gas storage facilities.

In late November, the Chinese Tianchen Engineering Corporation and the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Company (BOTAS) (Ankara,Turkey), launched a joint project for the underground storage of 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas. This underground storage project is located along the southern coast of Turkey's Great Salt Lake. Construction on the $640 million project is expected to take approximately eight years. Turkey's only currently operational natural gas storage facility is in Silivri, about 80 kilometres west of Istanbul, and has a capacity of 1 billion cubic meters.

Natural gas accounts for 47% of Turkey's electricity generation, which is a larger share than other major resources, according to data from Turkey's Energy Ministry.

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