Page 9 - MEOG Week 39 2022

MEOG PRODUCTS & COMPANIES MEOG

TPAO presses forward with Sakarya

ahead of first gas deliveries

IRAN STATE-OWNED Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) during Q1 2023. Capital expenditure of around
continues to fast-track the development of the $3.2bn is believed to be required to achieve first
offshore Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea, with gas.
the company appearing set to feed first gas into Speaking at the Grand National Assembly,
the Turkish grid on schedule. BOTAS general manager Burhan Ozcan said:
The latest update came this week from Turk- “We need to be ready systematically when our
ish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Black Sea gas comes into operation in 2023.
Donmez, who was quoted by local daily Yeni All infrastructure works related to this have
Shafak as saying following an inspection of facil- been planned and investments have been initi-
ities that Sakarya gas will begin being delivered ated,” Ozcan said at the Turkish Grand National
to consumers in March. Assembly.
“We have 30 ships operating at sea. 140 km He added: “The carrying capacity of our
of the 170 km [16-inch (406mm)] of pipeline infrastructure will be 18-20 bcm per year […]
has been completed. 70% of the pipelines on The day TPAO brings 40 mcm ashore, we will be
land have also been laid,” he said while visiting in a position to carry it.”
Saipem’s Castorone pipelaying vessel. He added Meanwhile, Erdogan added that output from
that around “32 km of the 10-inch [254mm] Sakarya would ramp up to reach a peak output
pipeline, designed as an auxiliary line, have been level of around 15 bcm per year in 2026, a year
completed, too”. later than previous guidance.
Casterone is installing the 165-km deep-wa- TPAO has completed a 10-well drilling
ter section of pipeline, with Saipem’s Castoro campaign to facilitate phase one production,
10 chosen to deploy 5 km of pipeline in shallow but another 30 are planned to be drilled to ena-
water, which was completed in July. ble peak output. To that end, TPAO recently
Donmez took to Twitter to say: “Sakarya gas acquired a fourth drillship, and following main-
field will be the fastest offshore field develop- tenance work this will join the Fatih, Kanuni and
ment project in the world, from exploration to Yavuz vessels, which have all been deployed to
the first production.” Sakarya. The new drillship – the Cobalt Explorer,
TPAO discovered 320bn cubic metres of gas acquired from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuild-
at the Tuna-1 well in August 2020 and this was ing & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Q4 last
subsequently upgraded to 405 bcm two months year – has been renamed Abdulhamid Han.
later and renamed Sakarya. In June 2021, the Donmez noted that its Oruc Reis seismic
company announced that it had found another vessel, which had been operating in the Eastern
135 bcm with the Asmara-1 well, taking the total Mediterranean, has been moved to Filyos for
volume discovered so far at Sakarya to 540 bcm. maintenance.
The sections of pipeline will connect Sakarya “The ship needed some modernisation work
to gas processing facilities under construction related to hardware and software. [It] was previ-
at the port of Filyos in the northern province of ously designed to conduct mostly 2-D seismic
Zonguldak. surveys. Now the ship becomes capable of per-
In June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip forming 3-D seismic research, like the Barbaros
Erdogan said that the field’s first development Hayrettin Pasha ship, and the assembly of the
phase would yield 10mn cubic metres per day equipment is currently underway. We will com-
(3.65 bcm per year) of gas, which will begin plete the modernisation work in a month and
being fed into the national transmission system send it to the new location.”™

Week 39 28•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9