Turkey Expands Gas Storage, Hopes To Become Transit Hub

Turkey has completed a project to expand its natural-gas storage by 45%, supporting the government’s aim of becoming a transit hub for gas flowing to Europe.

• The expansion of the Silivri storage means the reserves can release 75mcm per day, a rise of 167% from about two years ago, according to the Energy Ministry.
• Silivri can now hold 4.6bcm of gas, compared with 2.8bcm before the project began in early 2021.
• Turkey’s total gas-storage capacity, including the Salt Lake site in central Anatolia, stands at 5.8bcm. The government wants to increase that to 10bcm by 2025.
• It comes days after he discussed a new pipeline with leaders of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to pump gas to Europe from the two countries via Turkey.
• Turkey’s aspiration on building a gas hub has been facing several hurdles, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the fallout on energy markets have rekindled many ideas for gas flows that had previously been considered unlikely.