Page 8 - EurOil Week 24 2022

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

The Fatih drillship that
undertook work at the
Sakarya field.

Turkey begins pipelaying ahead

of first gas from Sakarya

TURKEY TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bcm of gas at the Tuna-1 well in August 2020
announced this week that the Castoro 10 vessel and this was subsequently upgraded to 405 bcm
has begun laying pipes that will tie-back the flag- two months later and renamed Sakarya. In June
ship Black Sea gas discovery ahead of first gas in 2021, the company announced that it had found
early 2023. another 135 bcm with the Asmara-1 well, taking
The pipeline will connect the Sakarya gas the total volume discovered so far at Sakarya to
field, which lies around 150 km offshore Tur- 540 bcm.
key’s northern Zonguldak coast, to gas process- TPAO awarded major contracts for the gas
ing facilities under construction at the port of field development project to international ser-
Filyos. vices firms late last year, with US-based Schlum-
Speaking to the press there this week, Erdo- berger and Luxembourg-registered Subsea 7
gan said that the first phase of Sakarya’s devel- awarded an engineering, procurement, con-
opment would yield 10mn cubic metres per day struction and installation (EPCI) contract cover-
(3.65bn cubic metres per year) of gas, which will ing subsurface solutions to onshore production
begin being fed into the national transmission in October and Italy’s Saipem hired in Novem-
system during Q1 2023. Capital expenditure ber to carry out transport and installation (T&I)
of around $3.2bn is believed to be required to work for 175 km of pipelines to tie Sakarya back
achieve first gas. to the Turkish mainland.
National transmission system operator The same month, UK-based Wood Group
(TSO) Botas said that the first section of the was brought in as integrated project manage-
pipeline would be completed on November 6, ment consultant (PMC) for the first EPCI phase,
at which point it will be able to buy Sakarya gas covering EPI of the subsea production system,
and pipe it through its network. Speaking at the gas transport pipeline and umbilical, and the
Grand National Assembly, Botas general man- onshore processing facility at Filyos.
ager Burhan Ozcan said: “We need to be ready TPAO has completed a 10-well drilling
systematically when our Black Sea gas comes campaign to facilitate phase one production,
into operation in 2023. All infrastructure works but another 30 are planned to be drilled to ena-
related to this have been planned and invest- ble peak output. To that end, TPAO recently
ments have been initiated.” acquired a fourth drillship, and following main-
He added: “The carrying capacity of our tenance work, this will join the Fatih, Kanuni and
infrastructure will be 18-20 bcm per year […] Yavuz vessels, which have all been deployed to
The day TPAO brings 40 mcm ashore, we will be Sakarya. The new drillship – the Cobalt Explorer,
in a position to carry it.” acquired from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuild-
Meanwhile, Erdogan added that output from ing & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Q4 last
Sakarya would ramp up to reach a peak produc- year – has been renamed after Abdulhamid Han.
tion level of around 15 bcm per year in 2026, a Erdogan added: “It is also important that
year later than previous guidance. we make such a historical discovery with fully
Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) discovered 320 domestic resources.” ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 16•June•2022