The world’s biggest specialized vessel to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) is scheduled to be operational in November to contribute to Turkey's energy supply security, Bloomberg reported.
The MOL FSRU Challenger, as long as the Eiffel Tower, is expected to arrive from South Korea this month and start by year-end.
Last winter, a cold snap gripped the whole region, including Iran, where Turkey gets some of its gas from. That meant the nation couldn’t get hold of enough fuel to meet its booming gas demand and the grid asked private power plants to reduce fuel demand by as much as 90 percent.
A first floating storage and regasification unit, the Neptune, arrived in December to complement two onshore terminals at Aliağa and Marmara Ereğlisi.
"We expect Turkey to import more than last winter, and last winter they increased demand," Gyorgy Vargha told Bloomberg. Vargha is the CEO of MET International AG, an energy trader based in Zug, Switzerland that trades LNG mainly in southern Europe.
Turkey was the fastest-growing market for LNG imports after China, South Korea and Japan in the first half of the year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which forecasts uneven demand in the nation through 2030.
The MOL FSRU Challenger has a LNG storage capacity of 263,000m3 and has LNG re-shipment and gas transfer capabilities. That means, the 345-meter (1,132 feet) tanker can store 263,000 cubic meters of LNG, enough to cover more than a day’s gas demand in Turkey.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) will promote the FSRU business, which meets customer needs for diversified LNG procurement, as one of world's largest LNG carrier operators, the only Japanese FSRU owner and operator, and the only Japanese shipping company that owns and operate FSRU.