Page 6 - MEOG Week 12 2023

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Turkey eyes 40 bcm per year gas exports

TURKEY TURKEY wants to position itself as a key nat- under the Black Sea to Turkey to 62 bcm per year.
ural gas exporter on the back of its key Sakarya However, it remains to be seen how receptive
discovery in the Black Sea, the country’s energy European buyers will be to continued Russian
minister, Fatih Donmez, said in a TRT TV inter- gas in the coming years, as the EU strives to cut
view on March 19. all energy ties with Moscow.
The implementation of an international gas Meanwhile, Turkey is set to play a critical
hub could enable the country to export 40bn transit role in the EU plan to double shipments
cubic metres of gas per year, he said. of gas from Azerbaijan to 20 bcm per year by
“We did not abandon our plans and [the hub] 2027. But there is concern about how much of
may begin its work within a year. Now we have this extra gas can be delivered at Azeri fields, and
our own gas. We consume around 55-60 bcm how much will simply be delivered from Russia
of gas annually, can have 100 bcm, and, if we for onward delivery, indirectly, to Europe.
plan it all properly, we will have 40 bcm of gas to
export,” the minister said. Gas hub admission
Turkey has traditionally served as a gas tran- Russia has conceded that work to create a “gas
sit nation, delivering from Azerbaijan and Rus- hub” in Turkey will amount to a complex project
sia through pipelines. But Donmez said that the that will need time to come to fruition.
country should not be treated as a transit nation Some countries in the West are bothered by
any longer. the prospect of Moscow attempting to use such
“It will be a country housing a hub of inter- a hub to send masked Russian gas to Europe,
national gas trade, and it is planned to be built enabling Russia to overcome some sanctions
within a year,” he said. imposed over its war in Ukraine, but such con-
Sakarya was first discovered by Turkey’s state- cerns were not mentioned by Kremlin spokes-
owned TPAO in August 2020 with the 320 bcm man Dmitry Peskov when he spoke to reporters
Tuna-1 well, which was subsequently upgraded about the outlook for the project.
to 405 bcm two months later and renamed. In “It is clear that this is quite complicated work,
June 2021, the company announced that it had it is a rather complex project which, unfortu-
found another 135 bcm with the Asmara-1 well, nately, cannot be implemented without time
taking the total volume discovered to 540 bcm. shifts, without technical or other problems,”
The field’s first development phase would Peskov told media, as reported by Reuters on
yield 10mn cubic metres per day (3.65 bcm March 20.
per year) of gas. Capital expenditure of around He added: “Such situations are inevitable in
$3.2bn is believed to be required to achieve first relation to the Turkish hub. We will follow it, we
gas. Output at Sakarya to ramp up to around 15 will continue to work with our Turkish partners.”
bcm per year in 2026. President Vladimir Putin outlined the idea of
At the same time, Russia is courting Tur- a Turkish gas hub last year as European coun-
key as a potential means of delivering extra gas tries moved to slash their imports of Russian gas
to Europe, absent the-now-inoperable Nord in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. His
Stream pipelines. proposal also came after unexplained explosions
Moscow has suggested doubling the capacity damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Rus-
of the TurkStream pipeline that runs from Russia sia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 22•March•2023