Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) awarded the design, supply and installation of the second phase of the Lake Tuz (Tuz Golü) Underground Storage Expansion Facility to a joint venture (JV) between China's Camc Engineering and Turkey's IC Içtaş, BOTAŞ announced yesterday.

The facility is part of Turkey's aim to expand its gas storage capacity. The launch of the second phase of the project will open an additional 48 caverns to contribute towards the facility running at full capacity with 60 caverns by 2023. BOTAŞ said the $1.2 billion Salt Lake contract would run for 1,800 days. The total amount will be paid in three different currencies; $808.2 million, plus 198.8 million euros ($228 million), plus TL 585.3 million.

The incumbent Treasury and Finance Minister, and former Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Berat Albayrak said on June 27, 2018 that Turkey would gradually increase its storage capacity from 1 billion cubic meters to as much as 5.4 billion cubic meters up to 2023. Albayrak added that 10 billion cubic meters of storage capacity would be reached with the expansion of the Silivri natural gas storage facility located west of Istanbul.

On June 27, 2018, the World Bank and China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a total of $1.2 billion credit for the Lake Tuz facility, which was launched by Turkish President Recep Erdoğan on Feb. 10, 2017.

The facility is located in the Sultanhanı district in the province of Aksaray, 40 kilometers from Lake Tuz.