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Turkey’s Aksa expands further in Africa

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Turkish energy company, Aksa Energy, is in talks to further develop energy projects including the development of a new electricity generation company in the African continent, the company’s general manager said Monday.

Following the company’s Ghanaian venture to relocate its Samsun Natural Gas Power Plant from Turkey to Ghana, Aksa is currently holding talks with another African country, which remains unidentified, to form an electricity generation company and relocate their Van Natural Gas Power Plant to the African continent.

Their decision to relocate the Samsun plant from Turkey to Ghana was taken due to market conditions in Turkey which have seen natural gas fall in popularity as a source for electricity generation.

As Turkey’s electricity supply has overtaken demand in the country, natural gas has fallen out of favor as a power source due to its high costs because it needs to be imported. Therefore it is a less efficient source of power compared to domestically produced renewables and coal.

Aksa Energy’s Samsun gas plant was an example of such a redundant costly plant. Consequently, the company took the initiative to move the power plant to Ghana where it will generate 370 megawatts of much needed power.

“We are at the last step to complete our moving process. Once we get the necessary letter of credit from the Ghanaian government, our machines will have a 30-35 day voyage to Ghana. We envisage that the power plant will be completely operational at the end of the third quarter of this year,” Cuneyt Uygun, Aksa Energy’s general manager told Anadolu Agency.

The company also decided to halt electricity generation at the Van Natural Gas Power Plant for the same reasons in December, 2015.

“We halted the Van power plant and we are planning to move it abroad once we find a good contract. Our teams are currently in negotiations with an African country for constructing a new electricity generation company. If we can agree to terms, hopefully we will announce the move of the power plant in the near future,” Uygun revealed.

– “Domestic sources should be indispensable for Turkey”

Uygun stressed that the use of domestic sources for power is necessary for Turkey.

“Coal and renewable sources are our own resources. The supply of imported resources depends very much on relations among countries. Thus, for example, we were concerned about gas supplies from Russia during the jet crisis,” he explained.

“Using Turkey’s domestic sources for producing electricity is very significant. If market conditions improve and if the electricity production from coal gets some initiative or support, we will have further projects and we can start soon,” Uygun said.

He stated the second phase of Aksa’s Bolu Goynuk Thermal Power Plant in the north-west of the country, which was constructed in keeping with climate change targets, became operational last Friday and has reached its full capacity at 270 megawatts.

“If coal power plants are designed according to climate criteria, there will be no concerns over climate targets,” Uygun concluded.

Aksa Energy has 17 operational assets across Turkey, and with the addition of the second phase of Bolu Goynuk Thermal Power Plant, the company’s total capacity has reached up to 2,200 megawatts.

source: aaenergyterminal.com

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