Turkey's Botas buying 4 bcm of LNG from Shell in 10-year deal

ANKARA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Turkish state energy company Botas and British oil major Shell signed a 10-year LNG agreement on Monday, the Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

"A total of 40 LNG cargoes of approximately 4 billion cubic meters will be delivered annually for a period covering 10 years starting from 2027," Bayraktar said.

"This agreement ... provides additional regional and global trade opportunities with the options of receiving (LNG) from the filling port and unloading to European terminals."

Speaking in the ceremony, Bayraktar said the deal has strengthened Turkey's prospects of becoming a natural gas centre and its role in playing a part in Europe's supply security.

Botas signed a 10-year LNG agreement with ExxonMobil in May, under which Botas will purchase up to 2.5 million tons of LNG per year from the U.S. company.

Turkey meets almost all of its consumption needs with imported gas and brought in 14.3 billion cubic metres (bcm), or 28.3% of the 50.5 bcm that it consumed last year, in the form of LNG.

Turkey has the supply flexibility to a large part of national consumption needs with liquefied gas instead of pipeline gas if needed, with a gasification capacity of approximately 0.16 bcm per day, according to Reuters calculations. (Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and David Evans)