Turkey to use first gas from Black Sea in Q1, 2023

By Nuran Erkul Kaya

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey will start using gas from the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea in the first quarter of 2023, government sources told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Turkey's first national drillship Fatih discovered 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas last year in the country’s largest discovery ever in its history and the biggest offshore gas discovery worldwide in 2020 at the Tuna-1 well located about 170 kilometers off Turkey's Zonguldak coast.

The Fatih drillship continued drilling appraisal wells in the region, the first of which was completed at the Turkali-1 last month. The drillship is currently working on the second well, the Turkali-2, at water depths of 3,050 meters, the sources said.

Fatih will drill 10 Turkali wells in the Sakarya gas field over the next two years, each at a diameter of 2 kilometers.

Another of the three state-owned drillships, the Kanuni, will start work on well completion in the field by the end of March.

First gas production from the field will start in 2023 to be delivered to Filyos, a coastal town in the Zonguldak province through a 150-kilometer-long subsea pipeline that Turkey will construct to run from the field to onshore where it will be connected to Turkey’s national gas grid.

The Sakarya gas field discovery is enough to meet the country’s gas demand for around eight years based on its annual natural gas consumption of around 50 bcm.

Field production will gradually increase to reach a plateau of around 15 bcm in 2028, which is sufficient to meet 30% of the country’s annual gas demand. Up to 2028, Turkey will complete the drilling of 40 production wells in total.

Turkey's national oil and gas company, Turkish Petroleum Corporation, which is undertaking operations in the Black Sea region, said it would prioritize companies that are willing to contribute to Turkey's local industry and employment in any partnership or cooperation for works in the Sakarya Gas Field, the sources said.