Turkey Issues Storage Tender
Turkey's state gas importer and transit and storage operator Botas has opened a tender for the development of a new 4bn m³ capacity extension to its 1bn m³ capacity in underground salt deposits at Tuz Gollu in west central Turkey.
According to tender details published in Turkey's official gazette August 1, the tender calls for companies to bid for the engineering design and construction of 48 symmetrical underground caverns of between 630,000 and 750,000 m³, as well as the supply and installation of necessary equipment to raise the capacity of the existing facility to 5bn m³; the input injection capacity from the 30mn m³/day to 60mn m³/d and the output capacity from 40mn m³/d to 80mn m³/d.
Developing the project will also entail a 120-km pipeline to carry fresh water to leach the salt from the planned caverns and a 40-45km long discharge pipe to carry the brine to the nearby salt lake Tuz Gollu. Prequalifying documents for the tender are available in English from Botas' Ankara HQ for a fee of $100. The deadline for bids was announced as 3pm local time on August 18th
According to statements made previously by Turkish officials the new facility will be used to cover peak mid winter demand periods when Turkey has for some years experienced gas shortages.
Turkey has only one other underground gas storage facility under the sea of Marmara in the north west of the country. Botas, which operates the facility is currently expanding the capacity of this facility from 2.6bn m³ to around 4.3bn m³ which with the expansion of Tuz Gollu will take Turkey's total storage capacity to around 9.3bn m³.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council's summit in Istanbul in April, Turkish energy minister Berat Albayrak announced that Turkey would expand its underground gas storage to 11bn m³ but neither Albayrak nor energy ministry officials gave details of where the new storage would be sited.
Currently three other storage projects hold licenses. A subsidiary of Turkey's Calik Energy holds a license for a 1bn m³ facility at Tuz Gollu, however a company official has reportedly said that with Botas Tuz Gollu facility going ahead it was unlikely that Calik would pursue development of its licensed facility.
Subsidiaries of Turkey's Bendis Energy hold licenses for storage projects of 3bn m³ and 1bn m³ capacity at Tarsus on Turkey's east Mediterranean coast. But officials have declined to confirm to NGW whether or not the projects are actually under development or are stalled.
David O'Byrne