Türkiye to expand offshore energy fleet with 7th drillship

ISTANBUL

Türkiye is poised to elevate its maritime oil and natural gas exploration and drilling activities with the addition of a seventh ship to its fleet.

Following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's announcement on July 21 of the purchase of a new natural gas vessel to serve in Turkish waters, attention has turned to Türkiye’s energy fleet.

The floating gas processing platform, intended for use in the Sakarya Gas Field in the country’s north, is set to depart next week and is expected to arrive in Türkiye in approximately two months.

Measuring 300 meters in length and 58 meters in width, this platform is projected to supply sufficient natural gas to meet the needs of 5 million households once operational, with an anticipated service life of 15-20 years in the Black Sea.

In 2021, Türkiye unveiled the discovery of 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Sakarya field. The nation aims to reduce its energy import dependency from 71 percent in 2021 to below 50 percent within the next decade and to 13 percent by 2053.

In a statement in November 2023, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar also revealed plans to augment the fleet with a floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

Türkiye’s energy fleet for offshore gas and oil exploration comprises six ships: Fatih, Yavuz, Kanuni and Abdülhamid Han drilling vessels, and the Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa and MTA Oruç Reis seismic survey ships — all named after Ottoman sultans and military leaders. The Fatih, the first indigenous drilling vessel, was added to the Turkish Petroleum Corporation's (TPAO) inventory in 2017. On July 20, 2020, the Fatih embarked on Türkiye’s inaugural deep-sea drilling venture in the Black Sea at the Tuna-1 location near Zonguldak, targeting depths of 3,500 to 4,000 meters.

By the end of last year, Türkiye increased its total gas reserves in the Black Sea to 710 billion cubic meters. Turkish authorities, referencing prior geological data from the United States, have indicated that the Black Sea may hold approximately 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves.