Storage: Legal entities who will engage in storage activities are obliged to comply with the following provisions:
- The legal entities must obtain a license from the EMRA to engage in ground and underground storage activities for natural gas in gas or LNG state. Any storage activity without such a license is hereby prohibited. Legal entities which apply for a license must satisfy the conditions as per the regulation to be issued.
The conditions, which the legal entities applying for storage licence shall satisfy, are as follows;
- to have technical and economical capability to carry out storing,
- to undertake to manage all the storage capacities under their possession in such a manner as contributes to the safe and coordinated operation of the system,
- to undertake that the services to be extended by the storage facilities under their possession shall be rendered in an unbiased and equal way in so long as the system is available.
According to the Law no. 6326, in the case that companies holding an operation licence apply to the Authority, following the General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs' approval for the utilisation as a gas storage of the underground natural gas bed from where natural gas is generated, the relevant part of the operation licence shall be converted to a storage license if it is found appropriate by the EMRA. However, the generation company should document with its application to the EMRA that it is eligible for the storage license. If the company starts storage activities, they shall be carried out as a separate activity by keeping the accounts separate. In the event of the rejection of requests made to the storage company, and if the system user has informed the EMRA of the situation, and in the event that the EMRA discovers, by making necessary examinations and audits, that the storage company has breached the licence terms and the procedures and principles in effect, it may force the storage company to provide the requested service.
In existing and future storage license applications, information regarding the province, sub province, village, suburb, block and plot of the subject location of the application shall be announced on the internet page. In the event of another application being made for a natural gas storage license for operation at the subject location of the announcement within the period to be designated in the announcement, evaluation of the licence applications shall be carried out on the basis of the criteria to be determined by the EMRA, providing that the applicant legal entities fulfil the requirements for issuance of the storage license. In the event that there are several applications after said evaluation, a competition shall be made between said legal entities based on increment of the license price. However, if minimum of one half of the site of the storage activities is under the ownership of the license applicant or its shareholders and/or the applicant legal entity and/or its shareholders holding the rights of utilization and/or easement and/or any other rights over the subject location for storage activities so as to provide for realization of the storage activities, then said application shall be accepted and other applications shall be rejected.
