Turkey is accelerating infrastructure projects to transform the country into an international "gas hub" as part of a project being discussed with Russia, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
 
The third Turkish floating storage and regasification unit entered the Mediterranean Sea to operate at the BOTAS LNG terminal in Saros Bay in the Agean Sea off Turkey's European coast, Anadolu news agency reported.  

The vessel, which is designed to store 180,000 cubic meters of LNG and supply 28 million cubic meters of gas per day, has passed through the Suez Canal and is now in Egyptian waters, according to the news agency.

Earlier this month, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced on January 3rd that his country has begun work on the gas hub project proposed by Russia.

"We intend to take advantage of this project, there are opportunities and terminals for this," Donmez stated in an interview with Turkish broadcast TVnet.

"Our preliminary preparation time is a year, now we are assessing the infrastructure and details," Donmez said, noting that European country's interest in the project could grow with time.

Donmez further said that the prices will not be tied to any one country, likening the project to a supermarket where there will be different prices.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instructed their governments in October 2022 to map the possibility of creating a gas hub in Turkey where traffic could be diverted from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines.

On October 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow could redirect gas transit from the Nord Stream pipelines, damaged by an explosion classified by Russia as an act of terrorism, to Turkey. Unprecedented damage was dealt to three out of four Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez stated then that Turkey and Russia have come to an agreement over creating a gas hub that will link the two through Europe, and Ankara has already started on its part of the work.

On October 14, Erdogan said the two leaders instructed relevant institutions of the two countries to quickly begin work on the idea of creating a hub in Turkey for gas supplies to Europe.

The idea surpasses creating a trading platform in Turkey, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, but also to develop infrastructure and increase the volume of supplies to Europe. He said other countries can join in as suppliers, including Algeria, Qatar, and Azerbaijan.