Qatar Considers Helping Build Turkish LNG Plant

Qatar is considering helping to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in Turkey, the Gulf state’s news agency reported late on Tuesday, citing energy minister Mohammed al-Sada.

The world’s largest LNG exporter has spent over a $100 billion constructing huge plants for loading super-cooled gas onto tankers, but it has generally avoided building regasification plants in consuming countries, so far.

Al Sada told the Qatar News Agency that a feasibility study was being carried out on the proposed project, but he gave no indication of when it might be completed.

Qatar has also already sold most of its gas so will have to weigh the benefits of building a large import terminal in Turkey which it might not fully utilize against simply selling the fuel to Turkey on long term contracts.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz on Saturday said he would discuss Qatar’s possible help in building an import terminal on Turkey’s Aegean coast during his visit to the Qatari capital Doha earlier this week.

Turkey is keen to find alternative suppliers of energy it needs to meet its own rapidly rising demand and reinforce its role as an energy supply bridge for south-east Europe.

Yildiz said on Saturday that the terminal on the Gulf of Saros, an inlet in European Turkey, could have an annual capacity of 5 to 6 billion cubic metres and help supply Bulgaria and Greece.