Turkey's gas reserve volumes in Black Sea expected to rise

By Nuran Erkul Kaya

ISTANBUL (AA) - The increasing exploration and drilling efforts for new wells after Turkey's Fatih drillship discovered 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in the Black Sea is about to bear fruits with further gas volumes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will announce the recent developments in the field, which is expected to be about a new gas discovery.

Fatih drilled Turkali-1 and Turkali-2 testing wells after the big discovery along with the Amasra-1 well, which is an exploration well.

Testing and exploration drills will likely result in new additional gas reserves.

Turkey's Black Sea gas find was the largest offshore gas discovery in the world last year, while it was the second-largest in overall findings.

International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said last year in an interview with Anadolu Agency that the potential economic value of Turkey's discovery was around $80 billion in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

Another drillship, Kanuni, is currently carrying out completion tests at the Turkali-2 well while Fatih is drilling testing the well of Turkali-3.

Turkish President Erdogan announced he will have a video link with the Kanuni drillship on Friday.

- Plateau period of gas production is in 2027-2028

The first gas production from Sakarya Gas Field is planned for 2023.

Around 155 kilometers of the pipeline will be built from underneath the sea to Filyos onshore in Zonguldak, a port city in the Black Sea.

Turkish Petroleum will invest 780 million Turkish Lira only in the production and transmission facilities concerning the field. However, the overall investment volume in the Sakarya Gas Field is not publicly announced.

The pipeline will carry the natural gas produced underneath the sea to the gas processing facility to be built in Filyon Industry Zone.

After the processing, the gas will flow into Turkey's gas distribution system.

As a start, the daily gas production from the field will be around 10 million cubic meters which correspond to 3.5 billion cubic meters annually. The production will increase gradually, reaching 40 million cubic meters per day, making around 14-15 billion cubic meters of gas production yearly.

This marks the plateau period of the field when it reaches maximum production capacity, which is estimated to be around 2027-2028.
It accounts for 30% of Turkey's current natural gas consumption, which was 48.2 bcm in 2020.

As an import-dependent country, Turkey imported 48 bcm of natural gas last year with a growth of 6.5% compared to the previous year.

Turkey's natural gas production stood at 441 million cubic meters in 2020, according to Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority data showed.