Turkey’s state gas company signed a 20-year liquefied natural gas import deal with Swiss trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., the biggest yet in a flurry of new contracts.
From 2026, Botas will import around 4 billion cubic meters per year of US-produced LNG to its home market as well as to Europe and North Africa, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a post on X, confirming a Bloomberg report from last week.
The volume is equivalent to about 8% of Turkey’s total annual gas demand, but the mention of other markets indicates that part of the supply will be directed to support Botas’s international trading ambitions. North Africa’s only active LNG importer is Egypt, with which Turkey recently agreed to provide a temporary import terminal.
Botas also signed a preliminary deal with Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd. to import a further 5.8 bcm over nine years from the Louisiana LNG export project in the US starting in 2030, Bayraktar said in a separate post.
The deals add to a string of LNG agreements Turkey signed at the Gastech conference earlier this month, as it diversifies its import mix away from longtime pipeline suppliers Russia and Iran.
Botas is one of many energy companies expanding its LNG portfolio by securing supply ahead of a looming global supply glut expected to begin next year.
Gas trade will be among the topics discussed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump when they meet at the White House on Thursday, Bayraktar said.