Turkey and Qatar, one of the leading countries in the world in natural gas reserves, signed a liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreement on Wednesday during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Doha, the last stop of a three-day regional trip after Russia and Kuwait.

During President Erdoğan's visit, accompanied by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak, strengthening cooperation between BOTAŞ and Qatargas was discussed.

Under the agreement, Qatargas will deliver 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas equivalent LNG to BOTAŞ. According to information obtained from ministry sources, the first shipment will be soon. BOTAŞ and Qatar's Natural Gas Company signed a memorandum of understanding to enable Turkey to import long-term, regular LNG from Qatar, and in September, the agreement reached its final stage.

Regarded as a sign of strong relations between the two countries, the agreement is also important for Turkey in terms of ensuring supply security and reducing natural gas costs.

Daily LNG regasification capacity, which was 34 million cubic meters in 2015, rose to 64 million cubic meters in 2016 with an increase in capacity at the Egegaz terminal and activation of Turkey's Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) project. With the second capacity increase at the Egegaz terminal, the capacity increase at the Marmara Ereğli LNG terminal and the second FSRU, thanks to ongoing projects this year, this figure will reach 117 million cubic meters. Thus, over a period of two years, capacity will increase more than threefold.