Page 11 - GLNG Week 01 2023

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Turkey announces

Black Sea gas

resource boost

RESERVES TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has (406mm)] of pipeline has been completed. 70%
announced a 170bn cubic metre increase in the of the pipelines on land have also been laid,” he
country’s estimated natural gas reserves as part said while visiting Saipem’s Castorone pipelay-
of its ongoing exploration efforts in the Black ing vessel. He added that around “32 km of the
Sea. 10-inch [254mm] pipeline, designed as an aux-
Speaking following a December 26 cabinet iliary line, have been completed too”.
meeting, Erdogan said that a re-evaluation of Casterone is installing the 165-km deep-wa-
data from the Sakarya gas field had provided ter section of pipeline, with Saipem’s Castoro
a boost of 112 bcm to 652 bcm, while sizea- 10 chosen to deploy 5 km of pipeline in shallow
ble additional resources had been discovered water, which was completed in July.
through nearby drilling work. Sakarya was first discovered by TPAO in
Turkish Petroleum’s (TPAO) “Fatih drill- August 2020 with the 320 bcm Tuna-1 well,
ing vessel has discovered 58 bcm of natural gas which was subsequently upgraded to 405 bcm
reserves 3,023 metres below the sea level at [the] two months later and renamed. In June 2021, the
Caycuma 1 block. We expect this number to be company announced that it had found another
revised upward with the new exploratory wells 135 bcm with the Asmara-1 well, taking the total
we will open. Our new discovery will pave the volume discovered to 540 bcm.
way for similar discoveries in other geological The pipeline will connect Sakarya to gas-pro-
fields adjacent to the region,” he said. cessing facilities under construction at the port
The discovery of Caycuma and the Sakarya of Filyos in the northern province of Zonguldak.
upgrade increases the total volume of gas discov- Erdogan’s December comments echo a state-
ered in the Turkish sector of the Black Sea to 710 ment in June in which he said that the field’s first
bcm, which Erdogan said is worth $1 trillion at development phase would yield 10mn cubic
market rates. metres per day (3.65 bcm per year) of gas. Cap-
He explained that Caycuma would be tied ital expenditure of around $3.2bn is believed to
back to the mainland via infrastructure dedi- be required to achieve first gas.
cated to the Sakarya field. Meanwhile, Erdogan added that output
In September, TPAO said that it was expect- from Sakarya would ramp up to reach a peak of
ing to begin feeding first gas into the Turkish grid around 15 bcm per year in 2026, a year later than
in March 2023. previous guidance.
At the time, Turkish Energy and Natural On December 27, Donmez said that work on
Resources Minister Fatih Donmez was quoted the onshore sections of the pipeline that will con-
by local media as saying: “We have 30 ships nect to the domestic grid are nearly complete,
operating at sea. 140 km of the 170-km [16-inch with 36 km of pipe already laid.™

Week 01 05•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11