A Rich Infrastructure Detection from Botaş

Burhan Özcan, General Manager of Pipelines and Petrol Transport AŞ (BOTAŞ), noted that they have identified a geologically rich structure that can increase the storage capacity of Salt Lake Natural Gas Storage Facility to the level of 15 billion cubic meters.

2019 and 2020 balance sheet and result accounts of BOTAŞ were discussed at the Parliamentary Public Economic Enterprises (SOE) Commission. In his statements, General Manager Burhan Özcan stated that BOTAŞ has a natural gas transmission system of more than 19 thousand kilometers, and that the strategic infrastructure is provided to ensure the security of energy. Pointing to the increase in the number of natural gas subscribers in Turkey, Özcan gave the following statements: "While we had 13 million subscribers in 2017, the number of subscribers reached 18.8 million in the current situation. We brought natural gas to all 81 provinces. As of now, we have delivered natural gas to 649 settlements. Our main goal is to deliver natural gas to 835 centers in 2023. A gradual investment to achieve this. In addition to these, we have reduced 39.6 million tons of carbon emissions with the number of subscribers we have reached. This can be considered as an environmental and economic contribution. The first phase of the Salt Lake Natural Gas Storage Facility has been completed. Our Salt Lake storage areas are actively operating. Another difference of this facility from the existing storage facilities is that it adds considerable flexibility to our natural gas infrastructure. In the public opinion, 'What about the natural gas tanks? How much gas can it give to the system?' questions were asked. Salt Lake made a significant contribution to us when these questions were asked. The capacity, which was 350 million cubic meters in 2017, has contributed over 1 billion cubic meters as of today. Filling and unloading operations were carried out several times during the winter period at the Salt Lake storage facility. If we were doing this in old natural gas basins, we would not be able to react quickly and effectively in case of need for natural gas. In these facilities, we had the opportunity to increase the capacity of the warehouses in a few days, and then to increase the ability to supply gas to the system. Our target for 2023 in our Salt Lake storage facility is to increase it to a capacity of 5.4 billion cubic meters. I would also like to inform you about the geological study that we will increase the storage capacity to 15 billion cubic meters for the first time. We created the infrastructure. We brought our fresh water from Hirfanlı Dam. Together with this fresh water, we have identified a beautiful geologically rich structure where we can continue to produce caverns in the salt field. Without making a second fixed investment, we will have increased our storage capability here to 15 billion cubic meters. We will help our country achieve a minimum storage capacity of 20 percent in total. In our country, the inclusion of additional storage capacity in our system due to seasonal needs differences in summer and winter periods will strengthen our power in natural gas. Europe took new investment decisions due to the Russia-Ukraine war, epidemic, etc. It will build 10 new natural gas plants. These are decisions similar to the ones we made 5 years ago. As a matter of fact, we aim to increase our annual gasification capacity from 34 million cubic meters to 133 million and then to 155 million cubic meters.”