MT ''Botaş FSRU Ertuğrul Gazi'' is a South Korean-built Turkey-flagged offshore support vessel certified as a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) for liquified natural gas (

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

). She is owned by the Turkish petroleum and natural gas pipeline corporation

BOTAŞ BOTAŞ Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS) is the state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company in Turkey. The company was established in 1974 as a subsidiary of TPAO. Since 1995, BOTAS is a wholly state-owned company. ...

, and operated by the Norwegian maritime company Wilhelmsen Ship Management, serving at Botaş Dörtyol LNG Storage Facility in southern Turkey. This is the country's first vessel of this type.

History

The offshore support vessel was built for the Turkish

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

pipeline corporation

, at a budget cost of US$225 million, at

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

shipyard of

Hyundai Heavy Industries HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division ...

. Testing of the vessel started after her launch on 2 September 2020. She was completed on 17 March 2021 after a delay of six months, and sailed to Turkey on 23 March. She is certified as a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) for

liquified natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

(LNG) in accordance with the guidelines for LNG Regasification Vessels of the classification society

American Bureau of Shipping The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is an American maritime classification society established in 1862. Its stated mission is to promote the security of life, property, and the natural environment, primarily through the development and verific ...

(ABS). She was named ''Ertuğrul Gazi'' after

Ertuğrul Ertuğrul or Ertuğrul Ghazi (; died ) was a 13th-century uch bey (marcher-lord), who was the father of Osman I. Little is known about Ertuğrul's life. According to Ottoman Empire, Ottoman tradition, he was the son of Suleyman Shah, the leader ...

(died c. 1280/1281), who was the father of

Osman I Osman I or Osman Ghazi (; or ''Osman Gazi''; died 1323/4) was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as a bey, beylik or emirate). While initially a small Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman principality during Osman's lifetime, h ...

(), founder of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. ''FSRU Ertuğrul Gazi'' is the country's first vessel of this type. The ship arrived in

Dörtyol Dörtyol is a municipality and district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 342 km2, and its population is 128,941 (2022). It is a port city and oil terminus located 26 km north of the city of İskenderun, near the easternmost point of th ...

Hatay Province Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province ...

, southern Turkey on 26 April 2021. Her home port is

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. She then undergwent final regasification trials on site. On 25 June the same year, she was commissioned at

Botaş Dörtyol LNG Storage Facility Botaş Dörtyol LNG Storage Facility () is a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Hatay Province, southern Turkey. It is the country's second floating LNG storage facility after the Egegaz Aliağa LNG St ...

, northeastern

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

replacing the chartered Bahamas-flagged MT ''MOL FSRU Challenger'', the world's largest FSRU. She started her operations under the management of the

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

-based Norwegian company Wilhelmsen Ship Management, transferring

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

-based LNG from the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

-flagged carrier LNG ''Berge Arzew'' and regasifying and pumping into the national pipeline network system on 29 June. In 2022, BOTAŞ reported that the FSRU carried out a total of 24 ship-to-ship operations within twelve months. She transferred of regasified natural gas into the national pipeline network system in one year, which is equivalent to about the six-months housing consumption of natural gas of Istanbul, which has a population of around 16 million.

Characteristics

''Ertuğrul Gazi'' is long, has a beam of , a ship's depth of and a height of . The ship's tonnages are , and . The ship is propelled by one engine of . The FSRU is capable of storing LNG, which is equivalent to natural gas, and regasification of natural gas. Her daily regasification rate is among the highest in the world, and can meet 8.2% of the natural gas supplied to the system in Turkey on a daily basis. Turkey's annual natural gas consumption is . The vessel's IMO number is 9859820 and the current MMSI number is 271048493. The vessel has the callsign TCA6267.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ertugrul Gazi FSRU Floating liquefied natural gas terminals Ships built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group 2020 ships Tankers of Turkey Energy infrastructure in Turkey Natural gas in Turkey Botaş