Page 13 - MEOG Week 23 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Turkey announces

success with Sakarya well

TURKEY TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Bilgin said: “The second and third detection
announced last week that Turkish Petroleum wells were drilled together with the seismic inter-
Corp. (TPAO) had struck gas with its Amasra-1 pretations we made in the 2,200-square km 3-D
exploration well, adding 135bn cubic metres of seismic area.”
gas to the game-changing Sakarya discovery Fatih completed the drilling of the Türkali-1
declared last year. and Türkali-2 appraisal wells during Q1 and
The Amasra-1 well takes the total volume of TPAO is currently carrying out well testing at
gas reserves discovered by TPAO at the Black Sea both locations and results are expected later this
gas field over the past year to 540 bcm. month. The drillship has been joined by the Kan-
Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Min- uni vessel, which TPAO acquired last year.
ister Fatih Dönmez announced the start of drill- While sources have been quoted by Bloomb-
ing at Amasra-1 in mid-April. erg as saying that TPAO has reached out to sev-
It is one of a 10-well drilling campaign eral IOCs to secure funding and a development
designed to achieve first gas by 2023 at a rate of partner to proceed with the project, the official
3.65 bcm per year, and a further 30 wells will be line is that it will develop Sakarya alone and
drilled to reach an annual plateau of 15 bcm by without any foreign financing. Capital expend-
2025. Local media have begun quoting an antic- iture of around $3.2bn is believed to be required
ipated flow rate of 5-10 bcm in 2023, though no to achieve first gas.
explanation for the increase has been provided. The project is of key strategic importance to
The well was drilled by TPAO’s first drill- Ankara, which relies on imports for almost 100%
ship, the Fatih, which made the 320 bcm Tuna-1 of its 50 bcm consumption, which is anticipated
gas discovery in August that was subsequently to rise to around 80 bcm by the end of the decade.
upgraded to 405 bcm two months later and However, Ankara has provided no independ-
renamed Sakarya. ent audit of total and recoverable gas at Sakarya
Erdogan was speaking at the ground-break- and there has been widespread scepticism
ing ceremony of a new gas receiving terminal at among industry observers about the scale of the
the Port of Filyos on the country’s Zonguldak reserves quoted.
coast. The facility will be connected to the field Turkey’s economy is on the rocks and the
via a dedicated 150-km subsea pipeline, with the Erdogan administration badly needs some good
production phase managed via subsea tieback. news to cut its high energy bill and provide bal-
In April, TPAO general manager Melih Han last to the embattled lira.™

Week 23 09•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13