New drillship to start mission in August, says energy minister

ANKARA

Türkiye’s fourth drillship, Abdülhamid Han, will start its operations in the first half of August, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Sönmez has said.

The Abdülhamid Han is currently docked at the Taşucu Port in the southern province of Mersin, preparing for its mission.

Officials from the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) are working to determine a location where the new drillship will carry out operations. “They are considering five, six options. But probably it will be the Mediterranean Sea,” Dönmez told reported in Mersin on July 6.

Dönmez recalled that other drillships, Fatih, Yavuz and Kanuni, carried out their missions both in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and said that the operations are mostly concentrated in the Black Sea.

Abdülhamid Han is one of the five drillships in the world equipped with new generation advanced technology, the ministers noted, adding that the ship can accommodate up to 200 personnel.

Equipped with an active positioning system, the new ship is capable of drilling depths up to 12,200 meters.

Türkiye’s fourth drillship, which was originally named Cobalt Explorer, departed from the Okpo Port in South Korea on March 7 and arrived at the Taşucu Port on May 19. Its name was later changed to Abdülhamid Han.

The seventh-generation ship has a tower height of 104 meters and is 238 meters long and 42 meters wide.

Türkiye is using drillships in its hydrocarbon exploration activities in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.