CNG corridor via Turkey launched

© SocarAs you can see, traveling all the way across the Turkey on CNG alone is not yet possible, but if everything goes as planned, it's just a matter of time

The corridor is called the "Blue Line” and makes it possible to travel the 1500-kilometre route from Izmir to Mersin, via Istanbul and Ankara, on compressed natural gas alone, which means the stations are 200-250 km away between one another. The Turkish corridor, constructed and launched by the local branch of the Azerbaijani oil company Socar, thus becomes an extension of the European CNG refueling station network and a bridge connecting the Old Continent with Asia.

It ought to be made clear at this point that the 8 stations constituting the corridor are by no means the only CNG retail points in Turkey. The thing is, until now compressed methane has been used almost exclusively by communal services, such as garbage collection fleets and public transport authorities and so the stations were inside bigger cities, making traveling between them next to impossible. Now that's about to change.

The first of the stations incorporated into the corridor was built in Gebze on the western outskirts of Istanbul. Within two years eight stations altogether were constructed and launched to the public. The network is already functional, but far from completion – Socar plans to add more retail points across 2016, concetrating on the most densely populated regions of the country. Let's stay tuned for more news.