Turkey to invest nearly $111 mln in gas facility in Black Sea

ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency

Turkey will invest 780 million Turkish liras (around $111 million) to build a subsea gas production facility, and a 155-kilometer-long pipeline connecting to a new onshore gas processing facility in Filyos, in the Zonguldak province along Turkey’s western Black Sea coast, according to an environmental impact assessment application report for this three-phased integrated project.

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 over 3,000 meters.

The first section of this project, which constitutes the subsea gas production facility, will be built in Turkey's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea. The second section comprises the subsea natural gas pipeline that will be laid 2.2 kilometers below sea level connecting to the third section – the gas processing facility located in the Filyos Industrial Zone on the Black Sea coast in Zonguldak.

Turkish Petroleum Corporation, the national oil and gas company and project operator, will allocate a significant part of the Filyos Industrial Zone to this new facility.

Around 2,000 people are expected to be employed to bring Sakarya gas to the mainland.

The new subsea facility and pipeline, which will have a 40-year lifespan, will be operated remotely without staff.

In the first phase of the project, starting from the first quarter of 2023, a total of 10 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas per day will be produced from 6 to 10 wells at the Sakarya Gas Field.

This production volume will be transferred via pipeline to Filyos where it will be processed, ensuring its gas pressure level conforms with that of Turkey's Petroleum Pipeline Company (BOTAS). BOTAS will then distribute the gas to its end users.

The facility will process around 3.5 bcm of natural gas from the Sakarya field annually to help meet Turkey's natural gas consumption of 50 bcm per year.

Total daily field production from around 30 to 40 wells will reach 40 mcm during the second phase of the project from 2023 onwards.

The year 2028 will see the field entering its plateau phase when Turkey's natural gas production will reach almost 15 bcm annually. This will allow the country to meet a substantial amount of its gas needs.

Currently, Turkey imports almost all its gas needs, mainly from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and via LNG.