Gulf of Saros FSRU

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Gulf of Saros FSRU is a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) import terminal in the Gulf of Saros off the coast of Türkiye.

Location

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Project details

• Owner: BOTAS (100%)
• Parent company: BOTAS (100%)
• Vessel Name: Vasant
• Location: Gulf of Saros, Türkiye
• Coordinates: 40.636702, 26.657427 (approximate)
• Capacity: 5.6 mtpa, or 7.62 bcm/y
• Cost:
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start year: 2023

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcm/y = billion cubic meters per year

Background

In December 2019 it was announced that Türkiye's state gas importer BOTAS was buying a new floating LNG import vessel, the Ertuğrul Gazi FSRU. The new vessel was going to be used to supply gas to two onshore terminals -- the existing terminal at Dörtyol, MOL FSRU Challenger, on Türkiye's East Mediterranean coast, and a new terminal being constructed at the Gulf of Saros in northwest Türkiye. S&P Global Platts reported that "the Dortyol terminal had not been used as much as had been anticipated and that the lease on the existing vessel moored there would not be renewed. Instead Botas is buying its own vessel, construction of which is expected to be completed in 2020. The new vessel will be used to supply gas at Dortyol, but more frequently at the new Saros terminal, as most of Türkiye's gas demand is in the northwest of the country. Botas is currently constructing a jetty and terminal at the Saros location."

S&P Global went on to report that "According to the 2020 economic program of the Turkish presidency, Botas will next year open a tender for the construction of a link line between the new Saros terminal and Botas' existing transit grid, specifically the Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector Gas Pipeline (ITGI), which runs close by. That line is also connected to the newly completed Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline at an interconnection point at Kesan, which could potentially in future allow for the import of LNG at Saros and its transit into the TANAP-TAP corridor for export to the Balkans and Italy."

In April 2021, the Ertuğrul Gazi FSRU, with a regasification capacity of 28 million cubic metres per day, arrived at the Port of Dörtyol following construction by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea.

In February 2022, Türkiye's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez confirmed that the Saros FSRU project was still on track to begin commercial operations in 2022.

In December 2022, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said the FSRU would begin operations in January 2023. Botas chartered the Vasant FSRU for the project for 12 months starting in the first half of the year, for a fee of US$350,000 per day. The project has a capacity of 5.6 mtpa, or 7.62 bcm/y. In April 2023, the terminal received its first LNG cargo from Algeria.