Turkish floating plant operator in talks for Gaza power supply
ONE of the world’s largest operators of floating power plants on Saturday said it has been in talks to provide an electricity supply to Gaza, where the infrastructure has been destroyed by relentless Israeli strikes.
Intensive Israeli attacks since Oct. 7 have demolished an already deteriorating infrastructure in the besieged Palestinian enclave and harmed the region’s industrial sector, heavily disrupting transportation and communication.
“Geopolitical tensions do not directly affect our logistics but greatly influence the number of requests we receive,” Karadeniz Holding’s Vice President Zeynep Harezi Yılmaz said.
“We are in talks with Gaza for electricity supply and then an Israeli firm also expressed the need for our electricity,” Yılmaz said in an interview with private broadcaster Bloomberg HT without elaborating further.
More than 33,000 people, mostly women and children, have been confirmed killed by Israel in Gaza, according to health authorities, with thousands more feared dead and unrecovered under buildings reduced to waste. The Gaza war was triggered by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas’ incursion of southern Israel, causing the death of around 1,200 people, Israeli figures show.
Karadeniz Holding’s subsidiary Karpowership has about 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity thanks to its fleet of 36 power ships, with capacities ranging from 30 megawatts to about 500 megawatts.
The company’s operations mostly focus on Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, the energy crisis in Europe and the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw the company shift its focus.
Karadeniz Holding is negotiating with Ukraine for the power supply, Yılmaz said.
“We are in talks with Ukraine and have also signed a preliminary agreement,” she noted. However, Yılmaz said Russia is also making the same request.
“Our priority is the humanitarian aspect of this business, followed by compliance with international sanctions and laws, and finally, price and profitability matters,” she added.
Yılmaz plans to lift its installed capacity to 10,000 megawatts within the next five years. “We also have our LNG carrier and FSRU fleet.”
She also said they had received requests from several developed countries.
“For instance, during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, we engaged in preliminary agreement discussions with Italy, France, Germany and the U.K. Due to dependence on Russian gas, they considered us an immediate solution,” Yılmaz explained.
The company recently won a bid to provide electricity to a mining company in New Caledonia.
We are present in Indonesia in Asia, and countries like Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Malaysia will be added to these. In Africa, we have 15 ships in eight countries. We are very active in Latin America, especially in Brazil,” Yılmaz noted.