Turkish Firm Trials LNG Road Supplies to Bulgaria

Turkish company Aygaz Dogal Gaz has exported a cargo of LNG by road to Bulgaria, the company has confirmed to NGW on December 24.

According to a company official, the export of a small, undisclosed volume of LNG by road was conducted as a "trial" to see whether this was a viable option for delivering the gas to neighbouring countries on a greater scale. But the official was unable to confirm whether Aygaz itself had imported the LNG, or whether it had purchased the supplies from Turkey’s state gas importer Botas, responsible for the bulk of Turkish LNG imports.

The official explained that Aygaz had received considerable interest in supplying LNG by road from potential customers without pipeline access in neighbouring countries without their own LNG import facilities.

Aygaz operates a fleet of LNG road tankers, according to its website. But it does not disclose the number of tankers it has or their capacity. The company has a licence to import spot LNG cargoes until May 2020, and a gas export licence valid until 2049. It also has gas wholesale and transmission licences that run until 2034.

Aygaz Dogal Gaz is a subsidiary of Turkish LPG distributor Aygaz, which in turn is 41% owned by Turkey’s Koc group and 25% by Swiss-registered Liquid Petroleum Gas Development. The rest of its shares are traded on the Istanbul stock exchange.