More explorations planned in Black Sea, says energy minister

ISTANBUL

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has announced that there will be further hydrocarbon explorations in the western Black Sea this year.

One of the exploration sites is off the coast of the province of Rize, Bayraktar told private broadcaster A Haber, adding that they also identified a site to carry out exploration activity off Sinop.

Daily production at the Sakarya Gas Field is currently at 5.5 million cubic meters (mcm) and is expected to rise to 10 mcm by the first quarter of 2025, according to the minister.

A new floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel will depart from Singapore at the beginning of this week and arrive in the country after two months of sailing to start production in 2026, he said.

With the new FPSO vessel, Türkiye will increase its daily production to 20 million mcm, he added.

After it arrives in Türkiye, the vessel will undergo a maintenance process lasting several months.

“The ship will go to the Sakarya Gas Field and continue to produce this gas there for 20 years,” he said.

The platform will produce 10 mcm of natural gas per day in 2026 and meet the natural gas needs of approximately 5 million households, according to Bayraktar.

The newly acquired platform measures around 300 meters in length, 56 meters in width, and 58 meters in height, and the ship will extract gas from the seabed, process it, and transport it to the onshore facility.

“Türkiye’s demand [for energy] keeps growing. Our existing reserves need to be supported by new discoveries. Our other goal in exploration in gas and oil is to carry out our work in different fields and make discoveries,” Bayraktar said.

Exploration and drilling activities will primarily focus on the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, he noted. “Our next target [for exploration] will be the Aegean Sea.”

Commenting on the transport of Turkmen natural gas, which is part of Türkiye’s effort to become an energy hub, Bayraktar said initially up to 2 billion cubic meters of gas could be delivered to Türkiye annually.

“I hope that the Iranian side will show the necessary constructive approach on this issue and we will be able to bring 1.5 billion or 2 billion cubic meters of gas to Türkiye in the coming months or next year,” he said.

Bayraktar also said that negotiations are ongoing with different countries and companies for the nuclear power plants in the province of Sinop and the Thrace region.

“We need to finalize the agreements for these [planned nuclear power plants] within the next year and move on to the production and construction phases,” he added.