Giant Black Sea project weeks away from first gas

Türkiye’s government and its national oil and gas company Türkiye Petrolleri A.O. (TPAO) are putting the wheels into motion to achieve the first gas from a giant natural gas project in the Black Sea in less than three weeks. This is considered to be one of the country’s largest energy projects ever built.

Following the arrival of the country’s first drillship, Fatih, in 2017, Yavuz in 2018, and Kanuni in 2020, TPAO bought its fourth drillship, Abdülhamid Han, in 2021. The Fatih drillship discovered the giant Sakarya gas field in August 2020 and TPAO started laying pipes in June 2022 to connect the processing facility and the subsea production facility as part of the project development. This was completed last year.

After a natural gas discovery, announced in December 2022, amounting to 58 billion cubic meters (bcm), which was made at Çaycuma 1 block by the Fatih drillship, Türkiye’s natural gas reserves of 540 bcm were revised to 652 bcm following re-evaluation, bringing the country’s total natural gas reserves in the Black Sea to 710 bcm.

In a recent update, Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Dönmez, revealed that the first Black Sea gas would reach Filyos on 20 April 2023: “Hopefully, we will land the Black Sea gas in Filyos on the last day of Ramadan. We are making preparations for it.”

The Sakarya gas development project entails the establishment of a subsea production facility at a depth of 2,200 meters, 170 kilometres north of Filyos, and construction of a gas receiving and processing terminal on the Filyos shore, and the construction of pipelines to connect two units on land and sea.

Previously, the project was expected to deliver the first gas in the first quarter of 2023, most likely in March. However, the massive earthquakes, which recently hit Türkiye and Syria, have caused delays for various projects.

On the other hand, Dönmez confirmed that other projects were also nearing the end of preparations while pointing out: “On 27 April, we will bring fresh nuclear fuel to the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin. Now that place will be like a nuclear facility. We are making preparations for it. The Saros FSRU actually arrived. But we couldn’t inaugurate it due to the earthquake and other agenda.

“We also completed the largest solar power plant project in Europe. Hopefully, we will also have it inaugurated in Konya Karapınar as soon as possible.”

Moreover, the state-controlled crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading player, BOTAŞ Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), is in the process of launching its new FSRU terminal in Saros Bay in northern Türkiye, after the country’s third FSRU Vasant 1 arrived in February 2023.

The vessel, which loaded the commissioning cargo for the Saros FSRU project in Egypt, is currently being prepared for continuous operation for the next 12 months to enhance Türkiye’s LNG import capabilities. In addition, BOTAS owns and operates the Iskenderun facility offshore Dortyol in southern Türkiye while Pardus Energy stationed the Turquoise FSRU offshore Etki, a small town close to Izmir.

BOTAS also intends to add two Voith tractor-type propeller tugboats to its fleet. To this end, Turkish Uzmar Shipyard held a steel-cutting ceremony recently for Türkiye’s first dual-fuel tugboat, which would run on LNG and diesel.

Furthermore, Dönmez claims that Türkiye is one of the countries that take responsibility to strengthen and help both its own and Europe’s energy security by hosting important international projects and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is one of them.

Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources underscores that TANAP is “an important project related to the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Türkiye and via Türkiye to Europe and Italy. Its current capacity is 16 billion cubic meters per year, but we will double the capacity in the very near future. Likewise, both Türkiye and our neighbours will benefit from this increased capacity.” 

Meanwhile, Dönmez emphasises that Europe was caught unprepared for the natural gas crisis and explains: “Europe looked for an alternative by turning to LNG, but due to problems, such as the insufficient capacity, number of terminals, and the fact that the exporting countries were suddenly unable to meet such increased demand, prices rose abnormally. Europe was affected the most by the crisis in question.”

Recently a new vessel, named Mukavemet – which means Strength – joined Türkiye’s fleet and completed its preparations to participate in operations at Sakarya.