Fırat Çeçen, Chairman of the Board of Directors at IC İçtaş Construction, visited the site to inspect the Tuz Gölü Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility Expansion Project, which his company is undertaking. Fırat Çeçen received an update on the project’s progress on site and met with the construction crew and engineers.
The Tuz Gölü Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility project in the Sultanhanı district of Aksaray—which, upon completion, will be the largest of its kind in the world— drilling is taking place approximately 1,500 meters below ground, and natural gas is being stored in caverns formed by dissolving salt.
5.2 billion m³ of natural gas will be stored
The project, whose primary objective is to dissolve the salt reserves in 40 caverns near Salt Lake using freshwater and replace them with 5.2 billion m³ of natural gas, is one of the most significant investments in Turkey’s energy sector in recent years.
As part of the project, freshwater drawn from the Hirfanlı Dam via an intake structure will be pumped into the caves via a pumping station; the brine formed after the dissolution process in the caves will be transported back to the pumping station via CTP pipes and discharged into Tuz Lake from there.
The project includes all necessary above-ground and underground facilities, such as a compressor building, a wastewater treatment plant, electrical buildings, an air shaft, storage tanks, underground pipelines, and process pipelines, and encompasses the required
electrical, mechanical, structural, infrastructure, and architectural designs required for the construction of all necessary above-ground and underground facilities, such as a compressor building, a wastewater treatment plant, electrical buildings, an air shaft, storage tanks, underground pipelines, and process pipelines.
Upon completion of the project, it is planned to store gas in the existing underground storage facilities and the newly completed facilities in quantities equivalent to approximately 10 percent of Turkey’s total gas consumption by 2023.
Who is Fırat Çeçen?
Fırat Çeçen is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of IC İçtaş İnşaat, the flagship company of IC Holding.
IC İçtaş İnşaat has a proven track record in delivering complex industrial, infrastructure, and superstructure projects in Turkey, Russia, the United States, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe—many of which were delivered under concession models (Build-Operate-Transfer, Build-Operate, Concession, and Public-Private Partnerships) in Turkey, Russia, the United States, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe.
Under the leadership of Fırat Çeçen, IC İçtaş Construction has undertaken and completed construction and concession projects. These include the construction of the Northern Marmara Highway and the Third Bosphorus Bridge, the St. Petersburg High-Speed Western Ring Road, the Moscow – St. Petersburg Highway (Highway 11, Sections 7 & 8), the Menemen–Aliağa–Çandarlı Highway, the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, the Antalya Airport International Terminal II Terminal construction, Antalya Airport Second Runway and Apron construction, Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport International Terminal and Facilities construction, the Ankara-Istanbul High-Speed Train, the Izmir Çeşme Marina, the Bomonti International Tourism and Convention Center, and the New York Türkevi.
As of today, IC İçtaş Construction’s major ongoing projects include: Turkey’s first NGS project, the Mersin Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant; the Ankara Tuz Gölü Underground Natural Gas Storage Expansion Project; the Istanbul Mahmutbey-Esenyurt Metro Project; and the King Khaled International Airport Development Project.
