Historic moment for Türkiye as first pipes for giant gas project go into the sea

Turkey, which has recently decided to change its name to Türkiye, has started laying pipes in the Black Sea as part of its giant Sakarya gas field project development. The country has also named its fourth drillship, which has recently joined its fleet.

Turkish national oil and gas company TPAO revealed on Monday that the pipelaying for the Sakarya gas field development, discovered in August 2020 with the Fatih drillship, had started.

As recently reported, Saipem’s Castoro 10 vessel arrived in Türkiye to work on the Sakarya field development, described as one of the largest energy projects ever built in Türkiye. As part of the project, the vessel will lay and install the pipes that will carry the natural gas in the shallow water area.

The development of the field, which has 540 billion cubic meters of gas discovered, consists of the establishment of a subsea production facility at a depth of 2,200 meters, 170 kilometres north of Filyos, the construction of gas purchase and processing terminal, and the construction of pipelines to connect two units on land and sea.

TPAO has now started laying the pipes that will connect the processing facility and the subsea production facility. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held on Monday in the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

During his speech at the ceremony, Erdoğan said: “We see energy not as a realm of tension or conflict but as the key to regional cooperation. With this understanding, we work to develop avenues of cooperation with the actors in the region. We all will start to see in the upcoming period the positive outcomes of our ongoing talks. We shall continue our multipronged struggle until we rid Türkiye of any problem related to energy supply security.”

“As Türkiye’s irreplaceable position is understood better, those who are now reluctant about cooperation due to political reasons will certainly change their policies. What is more, the fact that we achieved such a historic discovery by domestic means is just as important as the quantity of the Black Sea gas itself.”

The country’s development of this giant gas field comes at a time when the security of the energy supply is at the forefront of global governments’ agendas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid tensions between Türkiye and Cyprus.

It is worth mentioning in this context that, less than a month ago, Italian oil giant Eni and its French partner TotalEnergies started drilling an exploration well in waters off Cyprus, using a Vantage Drilling-owned drillship.

The first step, the construction of a pipeline of approximately 400 kilometres in total, consisting of two separate lines of different diameters, started on the seabed with the preparation of the ground for the pipeline. The pipes will be welded and placed on the determined route on the seabed. According to TPAO, the pipeline will be the longest and deepest in the world.

When completed, the shallow sea section – which is the beginning of the line that will descend to the seabed and reach a depth of 2,200 meters – will reach a depth of 50 meters in the first five kilometres from the land arrival point. Among others, Saipem’s Castoro 10 vessel is working on this part of the operation.

After the completion of the pipe laying process in the shallow part, which is expected in June, pipe laying in the deeper part will continue with another ship that will come to Türkiye for the first time.

It is worth reminding that, under a contract with TPAO, Saipem’s other vessel, Castorone, will be employed on this project.

Türkiye’s goal is to bring the Black Sea gas to production in the first quarter of 2023 when about 10 million cubic meters of gas will be produced per day from the field. The project is expected to reach peak production in 2026. The country plans to raise its daily gas production capacity to 40 million cubic meters with 40 wells to be opened in the field.

President Erdoğan said that, in parallel with the pipeline in the deep sea, the country will also be starting the construction of the 211 km-long pipeline on land that will carry natural gas to the national grid.

“Once the gas reaches land, it will be processed and then will be transferred to our national grid with a certain level of pressure following decomposition. In the first phase of this project, we are building the Western Black Gas Measurement Station to measure the gas reaching the Natural Gas Processing Plant and the 36 km-long Western Black Sea Natural Gas Line Phase-1. Hopefully, we will have completed the work here by early November,” he explained.

TPAO also informed that its fourth drillship had been named by the President as Abdülhamid Han.

The drillship was bought last year from a South Korean shipyard. Following its departure from Okpo, South Korea in March 2022, the vessel arrived in Türkiye in May 2022.

After its preparations in the Taşucu port have been completed, the vessel is expected to be ready for activities in the Eastern Mediterranean as early as July.