Turkey is planning new legislation to further open the country's gas market, which is currently dominated by state gas importer and transmission operator Botas, Mustafa Yilmaz head of Turkey's energy regulator EPDK said in an interview published in Turkish business daily Dunya Thursday.
The new gas market law would facilitate the unbundling of Botas and the holding of new tenders for the transfer of Botas' import volumes to the private sector to enable the operation of a liberalized gas market, Yilmaz said.
Yilmaz added that Turkey's energy market is ready for such a move, pointing out that previous tenders for the transfer of volumes from Botas' import contracts had experienced limited success because the market was not ready.
The EPDK held two volume transfer tenders for Botas' gas import contracts in 2006 and 2007 but succeeded in selling only 4 Bcm/year of gas from Botas' contract with Gazprom to import 8 Bcm/year of gas through the western Transbalkan pipeline to four private companies. No bids were received for Botas' other import contracts Subsequently in 2013 Botas opted not to renew its Gazprom for 6 Bcm/year via the Transbalkan line allowing four companies to secure deals totaling 6 Bcm/year.
Yilmaz also said that efforts are underway to expand the availability of CNG and LNG to regions currently not served. Botas announced last week that it plans to buy a floating LNG regasification terminal but did not specify where they plan to site it, saying only that a number of sites were under consideration.
Yilmaz' comments follow the announcement earlier this week by Hasan Huseyin Savas the CEO of Turkey's newly established EPIAS energy market that the operator plans to launch a spot day ahead gas market by the end of this year. Botas currently holds gas imports contracts with Gazprom for 4 Bcm/year via the Transbalkan line which runs to the end of 2021, and for 16 Bcm/year via the Blue Stream pipeline which runs to the end of 2025.
In addition it holds contracts for pipeline gas with Iran for 9.6 Bcm/year which runs to July 2026 and with Azerbaijan for 6.6 Bcm/year which runs to April 2021 and contracts with Algeria for 4.4 Bcm/year of LNG which runs to October 2024 and with Nigeria for 1.3 Bcm/year of LNG which runs to October 2021.
Botas also holds a contract with Azerbaijan for 6 Bcm/year of gas to be delivered by the TANAP pipeline construction of which is expected to be completed in mid-2018 and with Turkmenistan for 15.6 Bcm/year, for which a pipeline project has yet to be agreed.
--David O'Byrne, newsdesk@platts.com
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