Subsea gas pipeline to be laid in Turkey's Sakarya field in spring 2022

By Zeynep Beyza Kilic

ANKARA (AA) - Engineering works at Turkey's Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea region are completed and the first subsea pipes will be laid in the spring of 2022, the Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez confirmed on Monday.

The subsea pipe laying will be carried out in collaboration with Italian multinational oilfield services company Saipem, who will transport and install the pipeline in the spring of 2022.

By then the country’s fourth drill ship, which is capable of operating in harsh sea conditions and even in high-pressure reservoirs, will be in place ready for operations, Donmez explained.

Exploratory work is still ongoing in the Black Sea following the natural gas discovery last year of 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) in the Sakarya field by the country’s first drill ship, Fatih.

A subsequent second discovery was made in June of 135 bcm, which brought the cumulative gas find to 540 bcm.

July also saw progress with the completion of reservoir-2 and reservoir-3 appraisal tests on the Turkali-2 well in the Sakarya field.

Last week, a daily gas flow of 650 thousand cubic meters was discovered in the reservoir-1 test of the Turkali-2 well.