Previously enjoying a monopoly in the domestic market, the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) has been taking steps to liberalize the market by distributing gas import licenses to private companies. Aksa was one of the companies that succeeded in getting a license.
The company is also expected to collaborate with Gazprom to bid in the privatization tenders for the natural gas grids of İstanbul and Ankara and to work together to establish a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility in Adana’s Ceyhan district.
Aksa will commence the imports after BOTAŞ’s current deal to purchase 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Gazprom annually expires next year.
Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, Aksa Chairman Cemil Kazancı said his company will be working together with Gazprom to market the natural gas in Turkey.
Kazancı also spoke about Aksa’s interest in bidding in the new tender for construction of Turkey’s first nuclear energy power plant if it can find an interested foreign partner. “We are not a player in nuclear energy, but we operate in many fields in energy,” he noted.
