Burhan Özcan, General Manager of Pipelines and Petrol Transport AŞ (BOTAŞ), stated that since 1987, 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas has been supplied to the domestic and foreign markets uninterruptedly.
BOTAŞ 5th Sustainable Power Summit was held this year with the theme of “Own the Future”.
In his speech, Özcan said that 14 billion barrels of oil have been offered to international markets with the activities carried out since 1967, when oil was found in Turkey, until today.
Noting that this is one of the most precious examples of sustainability, Özcan said, “We are proud to have offered a resource, which is approximately 850 billion dollars at the current market cost, to the international market since 1967.”
Noting that the natural gas activities have continued since 1987 in a similar way, Özcan said, “This group has been proud of supplying 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas to both domestic and foreign markets since 1987, without interruption. With the natural gas prices formed, this corresponds to 300 trillion dollars,” he said.
“Natural gas delivery capability will increase to 100 billion cubic meters”
Özcan also touched upon the developments in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and said:
“Until 2016, we had a capacity of 34 million cubic meters. So we had two fixed facilities. The point we have reached today is incredible. We have a capacity of 133 million cubic meters right now, but the new Floating LNG Storage and Gasification Unit (FSRU) is on the way. It is coming by supplying natural gas. This month It will begin to serve in our country before it is finished. Therefore, with the commissioning of this capacity, our total LNG capacity will have increased to 161 million cubic meters in the first part of the year. Only with our pipelines and LNG gasification facilities, we have the ability to deliver natural gas at the level of approximately 100 billion cubic meters. Our country’s consumption is 55-60 billion cubic meters. “There’s a huge power here. These are giant steps towards becoming a gas hub.”
Reminding that the storage works also continue, Özcan said, “The storage activities we have carried out in Silivri and Tuz Gölü are the honor projects of our country. The Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, which we opened on December 16, is the largest storage facility in the seas. These are the projects that relieve us in terms of supply security.” .
“Capacity at pipe boundaries has peaked”
Emphasizing that many countries have contributed to the security of power, especially with the international pipelines implemented in the last period, Özcan said, “This is a very critical point. Here we also reflect our strength in terms of resource diversity.”
Referring to the capacity in the pipelines, Özcan said, “The daily capacity of 75 million cubic meters in the pipelines has increased to 161 million cubic meters, or a peak price. Our work continues. The Black Sea gas will also contribute 10 million cubic meters in terms of capacity this year. We will increase the capacity of 161 million cubic meters to 171.” However, after a short time, it will reach 40 million cubic meters in a few years, and it will increase the total capacity to 201 million cubic meters. When we add the capacity increase in TANAP, this number will be an additional 20 million cubic meters.”
Özcan said that with the investments made, they have been providing uninterrupted gas to all 81 provinces since 2018, and the number of subscribers has reached 19.3 million.
Noting that natural gas supplied from different sources is used in different geographies as well as in Turkey, Özcan said that when the LNG form of natural gas is taken into account, power exports have been made to 6-7 different countries as a country.
22 awards in the field of environment and sustainability
Drawing attention to the localization efforts carried out within the scope of sustainability, Özcan pointed to Turkey’s first domestic offshore drilling platform and the national SCADA project.
Özcan stated that with solar and wind power plant installations, all of the power used in BOTAŞ facilities in 2024 will be supplied from renewable power sources.
Özcan also mentioned BOTAŞ’s efforts within the scope of efficiency and continued as follows:
“An increase is expected in the amount of power we use to transport the gas in the system, including the compressors. Here, the opposite is happening. After the efficiency and optimization studies of our friends, we have saved approximately 800 million cubic meters of natural gas in the last 5 years. Every year, we save natural gas as much as the consumption of Bolu province. This continues every year. At the end of the day, 5.97 million tons of carbon emissions have been prevented with efficiency studies alone. This is a contribution of 847 thousand trees that we provide to the universe with efficiency alone. We have built a system that saves 54 percent fuel gas. Here, LNGs It also contributes to your entry into the system.”
Özcan mentioned that BOTAŞ won 22 international awards in the 2019-2022 period, 17 of which were environmental and 5 sustainability.
