Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14
By Leman Zeynalova, Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:
SOCAR Marine, a Turkish subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, carried out the first refuelling of a ship with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Turkey’s Sedef Port, the country’s media outlets reported.
The new ro-ro type ship was built at the Sedef shipyard.
LNG is becoming increasingly important in the maritime transportation. Usage of LNG as ship fuel will make it possible to replace fuel oil with environmentally friendly natural gas.
Turkey has been importing LNG since 1995. The country already has two stationary LNG terminals – the Marmara Ereglisi terminal and the Aliaga terminal in the Turkish city of Izmir. Turkey imports LNG mainly from Algeria, Qatar, Nigeria and the US.
Turkey is an important energy partner for Azerbaijan. In particular, the two countries are linked by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline. It is also planned to build the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which will help deliver Azerbaijani gas to the European border.
Azerbaijan’s SOCAR has a separate unit in Turkey and is also the co-owner of Turkey’s large petrochemical complex Petkim. A new power plant and a container port are now being built at the complex site as part of Petkim’s development.