Turkey to launch its 1st floating LNG storage & gasification vessel on June 25

The inauguration ceremony of Turkey's first publicly-owned floating LNG storage and gasification vessel (FSRU) "Ertugrul Gazi" will be held on June 25, presided over by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez announced on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Yeni Akit Daily Energy and Mining Council in Ankara, Donmez said Ertugrul Gazi would be the first FSRU ship to fly the Turkish flag.

The Ertugrul Gazi FSRU is owned by Turkey’s state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company, Botas.

It will connect to facilities in the southern Hatay province and meet the household energy demand for one year of Hatay and Osmaniye provinces, having a natural gas storage capacity of 110 million standard cubic meters.

Solar energy breaks record in May

Donmez also spoke of Turkey's ongoing efforts to add more renewables and local energy resources to its energy mix through public and private sector cooperation along with collaboration with universities.

"We managed to break several records in renewable energy in 2021 when 96.8% of installed capacity that came online in the first five months of the year came from renewable resources," he said.

By the end of May, renewables constituted 52.6% of Turkey's total installed capacity and local resources constituted 64.2%, while 56% of electricity production came from local resources, he said.

"The share of wind energy in total installed capacity reached 9.9% and Turkey is getting closer to 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity in wind step by step," he underlined.

In May, Turkey broke a monthly solar energy record when the country produced 1,468 gigawatt-hours of solar power, marking a 5.8% share of overall power production.

Mining contribution to economy quadruples

Donmez said mining has quadrupled its contribution to Turkey's gross domestic product over the past 10 years, reaching 46.7 million Turkish liras from nearly 11-12 billion liras.

This mining share now stands at 1.1%, but according to Donmez, this will increase in the coming years.

The share of mining out of total exports reached 2.52% from 2.39% a year ago, showing the sector's resilience to tough conditions like Covid-19, he said.

"We will continue to be in close contact with representatives from the sector and provide any public sector support for its expansion," he concluded.