Works on ‘Turkey’s energy base’ continue

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s mega energy project that has attracted the world’s attention with its discovery of 540 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea is ongoing.

An energy base has been established 2,200 meters below the sea as part of the Filyos Natural Gas Processing Facilities project, where 4,200 people are working day and night, according to daily Milliyet columnist Abdullah Karakuş, who recently visited the site.

Wellhead valves will be placed in 10 wells in this energy base, which is on the sea floor,” Karakuş wrote in his column on June 6. The weight of one of these valves is around 65 tons, he added.

The control unit, which will be placed on the sea floor, is 260 tons. The gas will arrive at this energy base, which will be built on the seabed from another 2,000 meters below, and from there it will be transported to the shore by pipeline. So the area where the gas comes out is 4,200 meters below.

At the same time, 30 ships will work simultaneously in laying the pipes to transport the gas from the 10-well area 170 kilometers off the shore. In the process, the cliffs under the sea will be shaved and the gaps will be filled for the pipeline.

The site covers an area of 1.2 million square meters and employs hundreds of construction equipment and cranes. The first pipe from land is scheduled to be laid on June 10 and the plan is to make the Black Sea gas available for use at homes in the first quarter of 2023.

Land Processing Plant Chief Engineer Murat Uçar said the project is challenging, but everything is going as planned.

The facility will have a capacity to process 40 million cubic meters of natural gas per day and has an area large enough to have a capacity of 120 million cubic meters if needed. The daily production in the first quarter of 2023 will be 10 million cubic meters.