Turkey discovers new natural gas reserves in Black Sea

ANKARA

Turkey has discovered 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on June 4.

"Our Fatih drill ship has made a new natural gas discovery of 135 billion cubic meters in the Amasra-1 well in the Sakarya Gas Field," Erdoğan said at the groundbreaking ceremony of Filyos Port and Natural Gas Operating Facility in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

Noting that Turkey's total natural gas discovery in the Black Sea has reached 540 billion cubic meters, Erdoğan said drilling activities in Amasra-1 well region are ongoing and "we expect new good news from this region."

The president also noted that they plan to bring natural gas from the sea to land in three stages.

The first stage includes the natural gas production systems to be established on the seabed, he said, adding that the second stage will see the launch of the facility that will process natural gas on land and make it ready for use.

"The third stage is the pipeline that will provide the connection between the system at sea and the facility on land," he noted.

Turkey has ramped up exploration for oil and gas off its coasts in recent years.

In one of the world’s biggest finds last year, Turkey said it discovered 405 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea’s Sakarya field, about 100 nautical miles north of the Turkish coast.

In an interview with the state-run Anadolu Agency last year, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said that the potential economic value of Turkey’s discovery was around $80 billion.

After the big discovery, Turkey’s Fatih vessel drilled Turkali-1 and Turkali-2 testing wells along with the Amasra-1 well, which is an exploration well.

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

Plateau period of gas production to be around 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 Liras in the production and transmission facilities concerning the field alone. 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 a 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 corresponds 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 in 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 rate of 6.5 percent compared to the previous year.

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