Turkey discovers new natural gas reserves

Turkey has discovered 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday, June 4.

Turkey has ramped up exploration for oil and gas off its coasts in recent years.

In one of the world’s biggest finds last year, Turkey said it discovered 405 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea’s Sakarya field, about 100 nautical miles north of the Turkish coast.

In an interview with the state-run Anadolu Agency last year, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said that the potential economic value of Turkey’s discovery was around $80 billion.

After the big discovery, Turkey’s Fatih vessel drilled Turkali-1 and Turkali-2 testing wells along with the Amasra-1 well, which is an exploration well.

Another drillship, Kanuni, is currently carrying out completion tests at the Turkali-2 well while Fatih is drilling and testing the well of Turkali-3.

The first gas production from Sakarya Gas Field is planned for 2023. Around 155 kilometers of the pipeline will be built from underneath the sea to Filyos onshore in Zonguldak, a port city in the Black Sea.

Turkish Petroleum will invest 780 million Turkish Liras in the production and transmission facilities concerning the field alone. However, the overall investment volume in the Sakarya Gas Field is not publicly announced. The pipeline will carry the natural gas produced underneath the sea to a gas processing facility to be built in Filyon Industry Zone.

After the processing, the gas will flow into Turkey’s gas distribution system.

As a start, the daily gas production from the field will be around 10 million cubic meters, which corresponds to 3.5 billion cubic meters annually. The production will increase gradually, reaching 40 million cubic meters per day, making around 14-15 billion cubic meters of gas production yearly.

This marks the plateau period of the field when it reaches maximum production capacity, which is estimated to be in around 2027-2028.

It accounts for 30% of Turkey’s current natural gas consumption, which was 48.2 bcm in 2020.

As an import-dependent country, Turkey imported 48 bcm of natural gas last year with a growth rate of 6.5 percent compared to the previous year.

According to Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority data, Turkey’s natural gas production stood at 441 million cubic meters in 2020.