Construction of natural gas storage facility starts

AKSARAY - Anatolia News Agency

Drilling of the first of 12 wells for a natural gas storage facility under Lake Tuz by state-run pipeline company BOTAŞ and the Chinese TTC began yesterday with a groundbreaking ceremony.

The first well is located in a region between Sultanı, a district in the central Anatolian province of Aksaray, and Karapınar, a district in the central Anatolian province of Konya.

The ratio of stored to consumed gas is 5 percent in Turkey but 20-30 percent in Western countries, BOTAŞ Project Manager Gazi Dülger said at the ceremony.

Noting that Turkey consumes an annual 40 to 45 billion cubic meters of gas, he said Turkey has to store at least 4 billion cubic meters of gas.

Capacity increase

“The facility that we will open here will initially have a storage capacity of 1 billion cubic meters. We continue working to reach 4 billion. The project is planned to be completed in 2019,” he said.

China is a strong and experienced country in the energy and infrastructure sector, into which Turkey plans to pour billions of dollars, said Zhu Guangyao, private secretary at the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Montenegro.

“This facility has strategic importance and will play a significant role in developing trade relations between the two countries,” he said.

Total bilateral trade between China and Turkey hit $17.6 billion in the first quarter of this year, making the world’s second largest economy Turkey’s fourth largest trade partner, he added.