Turkey could be a natural gas hub with its LNG terminals聽at the border of Greece and Bulgaria, according to an official from BOTAS - Turkey's state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipeline company.
In the聽"Third Party Access to Turkey's Natural Gas Transmission System 2007-2013" report written by Hizir Hakan Unal, BOTAS's gas transmission expert, he聽asserts that Turkey and Botas' natural gas transmission pipelines could be integrated with the EU if Greece does not build a new LNG terminal.
"Turkey may receive a visa to聽EU's energy market聽by letting聽Greece and Bulgaria use its LNG terminals,"聽Unal told Anadolu Agency.
The natural gas pipeline, which may be used by聽Bulgaria and Greece, will be built by聽BOTAS, in the northwestern Turkish city of聽Corlu, and the company聽plans to complete the construction of the Onerler-Kesan natural gas pipeline by April 2015.
"After completion of the construction of the Onerler-Kesan pipeline, natural gas聽capacity in Greece will increase," Unal said.聽
"Apart from the current natural gas agreements, Turkey could be a link聽for聽natural gas transfer聽to Europe.聽Turkey's LNG terminals have third party access which means that European countries can use our LNG terminal for gasification," said Unal.
Turkey has two operational LNG terminals -聽聽in聽Marmara Ereglisi and in聽Aliaga. Aliaga is located聽in Izmir,聽the western extremity of Anatolia and Marmara Ereglisi is located in the west of Istanbul.聽
Turkey imports 4 billion cubic meters of LNG聽from Algeria per year and 1.2 billion cubic meters of LNG聽from Nigeria via its LNG terminals.
By Murat Temizer and Huseyin Erdogan
Anadolu Agency