While pursuing more renewable power, Türkiye boosts gas production with new Black Sea platform

As the energy transition spreads its wings across the globe, Türkiye is among countries, which believe that more oil and natural gas, especially LNG, go hand in hand with decarbonization and the buildout of green energy. Recently, the country, which is located at the juncture of Southeast Europe and West Asia, unveiled its plans to ramp up its renewable arsenal to 60 GW by 2035. Reports have now surfaced that Türkiye Petrolleri A.O. (TPAO) will bolster gas production from the Black Sea in 2025 with a giant platform, which was bought from Brazil. This floating production unit is said to be undergoing modernization work in Singapore.

Türkiye has been actively working on fortifying its energy security, as illustrated by the arrival of its first drillship, Fatih, in 2017, Yavuz in 2018, Kanuni in 2020, and Abdülhamid Han in 2021. The first of these drillships discovered the giant Sakarya gas field in August 2020. Following the Fatih drillship’s natural gas discovery in December 2022 at Çaycuma 1 block, the country’s natural gas reserves of 540 bcm were also revised to 652 bcm, bringing the country’s total natural gas reserves in the Black Sea to 710 bcm. The Sakarya project came on stream on April 20, 2023.

TPAO recently confirmed that enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques and projects would enable the company to extract discovered hydrocarbon resources in “the most efficient way to the last drop and bring them into our economy.” At the end of September 2023, the Fatih drillship started drilling activities in a new location in the Black Sea by spudding the Filyos-1 well to unlock more hydrocarbons and further reinforce Türkiye’s energy security.

While Offshore Energy was unable to verify the reports independently, Türkiye Newspaper claims that TPAO procured a new floating platform from Brazil to step up gas production from the Sakarya field, increasing it to 20 million cubic meters per day. Following overhaul works in Singapore to process gas, the 360-meter long and 56-meter wide platform – said to be the size of four football fields – is slated to arrive in the Black Sea in June 2025. The extracted gas is expected to be connected to Filyos via a 125-kilometer subsea pipeline.

As the current daily production is 4 million cubic meters of gas from the Sakarya field, TPAO plans to propel production to 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in the first development phase while the utilization of the floating platform is anticipated to help raise the output to 20 million cubic meters. The second phase is expected to bring 40 million cubic meters of natural gas in the coming years as other wells go into operation. Once the project reaches full capacity, it should meet approximately 30% of Türkiye’s current natural gas needs.

Furthermore, Türkiye Newspaper outlines that the new platform, which lacks an engine and needs to be towed by other vessels, will process raw gas from the depths of the Black Sea, conduct processing operations in the middle of the sea, transport the processed gas to the shore through the pipeline systems, and provide living quarters for the technical personnel working on board. Expert teams are expected to be brought from abroad, such as Norway, to contribute to the platform’s operations and provide training to local teams.

The news agency further notes that the reuse and modification of an existing platform saves time – as a new one would take around five years to be built – and presents a cost advantage of around 60% compared to a brand-new platform. While a name for the platform has not been officially announced, reports indicate that “Cumhuriyet” or “Republic” is at the top of the list in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. However, the country’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is expected to have the final say.

Türkiye is continuing its cooperation with different countries in order to ensure the security of energy supply. As the country’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources takes steps to strengthen the natural gas infrastructure, it is also increasing its LNG purchasing and gasification capabilities. With the aim of securing more LNG supplies, Türkiye has extended the duration of the LNG import agreement inked with Algeria. This agreement was signed between BOTAŞ and Algeria’s national oil and gas company, Sonatrach.

While noting that the three-year extension builds on the agreement between the two countries, which has been ongoing since 1988, Alparslan Bayraktar, Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, commented: “During this period, Türkiye will continue to import 4.4 billion cubic meters of LNG annually from Algeria. The will to extend this historic agreement will further strengthen the deep-rooted cooperation between the parties and carry it into the future.”  

The deal signed between BOTAŞ General Manager, Abdulvahit Fidan, and Sonatrach General Manager, Rachid Hachichi, prolongs the LNG agreement to 2027. 

Bayraktar recently highlighted that Türkiye would need to install 5 GW of solar and wind power capacity per year over the next 12 years to reach its medium-term goal of producing 60 GW of renewable energy by 2035 and underlined that the country would need to transform its energy system in three decades along with its agriculture, buildings and industrial sectors.

While emphasizing that Türkiye currently has ”roughly 55% installed renewable capacity,” the country’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources notes that renewables have great potential to meet the 2035 target of supplying reliable and affordable energy in “an environmentally friendly manner.” To that end, Türkiye has undertaken significant investments in renewables and energy efficiency to meet its growing demand and decarbonize energy markets.

In addition, the minister underscored Türkiye’s continuous investments in nuclear energy as part of its energy mix, adding that the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), in southern Mersin, would generate 4.8 GW of power when operational. Plans are also afoot to build two more nuclear plants in the country. Bayraktar emphasized the importance of affordable energy supplies as well as reliable energy in light of the country’s growing energy demand, which derives not only from the residential sector but also the industrial one.

Even though renewables are now more accessible due to a reduction in initial capital expenditure, Bayraktar underlines that the country will also look to invest in new energy technologies such as hydrogen, batteries, and storage, adding: “We need to find the right balance between supplying reliable energy and, at the same time, having competitive energy prices.”

At the 12th Turkish Wind Energy Congress (TÜREK) in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Wind Energy Association (TÜREB) with the main theme of ‘Century of Wind,’ Bayraktar pointed out that the share of electricity in final energy demand had increased from 15 to 20% in the last 21 years. This is forecasted to rise to 30% in the next 20 years. 

Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources emphasized that in addition to the increase in demand for energy, the demand for electricity also increased, along with the need for clean energy transformation, resulting from the fight against climate change. 

While explaining that this shaped the country’s energy policies over the last 20 years, Bayraktar stated:  “Our electricity sector has undergone a significant transformation. In this sense, we prepared the infrastructure for the clean energy transformation and started this transformation, without compromising the security of supply.

“The sector, which has an installed power of 11,609 MW and an annual turnover of approximately €2 billion, meets approximately 11% of our country’s electricity needs. The world average for the share of wind energy in total production is 7.5%.

“However, we have a much greater potential. For this reason, we aim to meet 25% of our electricity needs from wind energy for 20 years. To achieve these goals, we need improvements, reforms and new regulations in many areas.” 

According to Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, the country’s wind potential is approximately 100,000 MW or 100 GW under current technology and conditions, but this can reach up to 150,000 MW or 150 GW due to developments in wind turbine technologies. Considering the country’s current installed capacity, this potential signifies an additional capacity of approximately 140 GW, which corresponds to “an investment of $140 billion in today’s figures,” based on the minister’s calculations.

In a bid to underline that the success of the energy transition journey is closely related to the supply chain, Bayraktar said: “While realizing our country’s 140,000 MW potential, we must attach importance to localization of the source and be careful not to increase dependence on technology. In this direction, we must develop a large wind technology ecosystem, increase our localization rate, contribute to global supply diversity, and become a regional leader in this field.

“With the incentive mechanisms we have implemented, not only the installed capacity of renewable resources has been increased, but also many parts and equipment used in renewable energy technologies have started to be produced in our country. 

“Thus, we contributed to creating the necessary infrastructure for the supply chain, reducing foreign dependency in our country’s energy sector, increasing employment and increasing the share of renewable energy resources.”