Page 16 - GLNG Week 36

GLNG MIDDLE EAST GLNG

Turkey expects long-term gas suppliers to

offer more competitive pricing, flexibility

POLICY TURKEY reportedly expects gas suppliers to would depend on whether suppliers “approach
offer more competitive pricing and flexibility if with same old habits—no flexibility, not very
they want to renew long-term contracts totalling competitive price offers”.
16bn cubic metres (bcm) per year. Turkey is nearly entirely dependent on
Next year will see more than a quarter of imports to meet its oil and gas needs. In the first
Turkey’s long-term gas contracts expire. They half of the year, it reduced its intake of Russian
cover supplies such as piped imports from Rus- and Iranian gas supplies, but considerably upped
sia’s Gazprom and Azerbaijan’s Socar, as well its purchase of Azerbaijani and US gas. “The US
as LNG shipped from Nigeria. Reuters cited suddenly became the second largest [LNG] sup-
a senior Turkish energy official as saying new plier to the Turkish market in the first half of
competition from US LNG and Turkey’s poten- 2020. The main reason was that they were com-
tial to exploit a new gas find in the Black Sea – petitive,” the official added.
although the discovery announced last month Iranian supplies of gas to Turkey were dis-
has only shown preliminary promise – have rupted for many weeks after an explosion hit a
changed market dynamics. “Old-fashioned” gas pipeline. Tehran said Turkey was slow to repair
contracts, often indexed to oil prices and tying the pipeline and exerted pressure on Ankara to
buyers to contractual penalties if they do not buy restore it to operation at a faster pace. Observers
their full quota, are no longer in tune with mar- suspected Ankara used the long unavailability
ket realities and prices should be set against those of the infrastructure as leverage in its attempt to
at major gas hubs, he was reported as saying. secure better gas prices from Iran.
“We started to discuss whether we are going Turkey imports gas from Iran under an agree-
to renew [or] whether we are going to find alter- ment signed in 1996 for up to 10 bcm per year
native supply,” the official was quoted as saying at until July 2026. It commenced in 2001 and was
an anonymous briefing, adding that the decision later reduced to 9.6 bcm per year.™

NEWS IN BRIEF

AFRICA proprietary AP-C3MR™ propane pre-cooled for over four decades. Air Products’ goal is
mixed refrigerant liquefaction process at the to provide excellent customer service and
Air Products to supply four multi-train facility. develop long standing relationships with our
The original six MCHE’s at the Sonatrach
customers and our continuous work with
cryogenic heat exchangers facility were supplied by Air Products in Sonatrach in Algeria is a perfect example of
doing just that,” said Dr. Samir J. Serhan, chief
1977. Since that time, the location has
to Sonatrach’s LNG facility undergone multiple rejuvenation projects and operating officer at Air Products.
the original MCHEs are still in service. The
“Air Products’ supply, installation,
in Algeria new exchangers will incorporate the latest supervision, and commissioning of the four
MCHEs is part of Sonatrach’s plan to revamp
advances in design and manufacture which
Air Products, the world’s leader in liquefied have been developed by Air Products over the its LNG plants built in the 1970s. This project
natural gas (LNG) technology and equipment, past four decades. will help reduce maintenance costs, reduce
today announced it will be providing four of “This is a very significant contract for gas consumption rates and maintain LNG
its MCR® Main Cryogenic Heat Exchangers Air Products to have won with a very gas production at the GL1Z plant. We have
(MCHEs) for Sonatrach’s GL1Z LNG facility important customer, Sonatrach, who has confidence in the expertise and capacity of
in Arzew, Algeria. The four heat exchangers been a valuable customer of ours for many Air Products as a Sonatrach LNG technology
will each have 1.3 million tonnes per year years. This is another important milestone in traditional provider, and as a partner in the
production capacity and will replace four our commitment to work with Sonatrach in gas industry to manage the contract in a way
previous heat exchangers supplied by Air Algeria and deliver the best heat exchanger that matches our plan,” said Toufik Hakkar,
Products in the late 1970s, which are some of technology in the LNG industry. Air Products Sonatrach’s CEO.
the longest operating MCHEs in the world. is very proud that we built the original heat AIR PRODUCTS, September 09, 2020
The four MCHEs to be supplied by Air exchangers, which are still operating at the
Products will be installed at the heart of the Arzew facility in Algeria and have been

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 11•September•2020