Page 4 - MEOG Week 28 2022

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

Turkey makes oil find as

gas effort progresses

As momentum is maintained at Sakarya, Turkey’s
state energy firm is expanding its oil portfolio.

TURKEY TURKISH Petroleum Corp. (TPAO) this week to reduce imports, which currently cover around
announced the discovery of a small onshore oil- 92% of oil demand, with around 99% of gas con-
field as efforts ramp up to tap its flagship offshore sumption catered to by imports.
WHAT: gas asset. While output levels from Cukurova are
TPAO has discovered The news follows Ankara’s unveiling of the unlikely to change much for Turkey, the find
a new oilfield in the country’s fourth drillship, and the controversial comes amid wider exploration success for
southern province of announcement that it will begin operations in TPAO. Donmez outlined the company’s recent
Adana. the Eastern Mediterranean. progress, saying that production has increased
from 37,000 bpd to just over 60,000 bpd over the
WHY: Cukurova past five years.
While the discovery is Over the weekend, Energy Minister Fatih Don- “Over the same period, we have added
small, the company is mez paid a visit to TPAO facilities in the south- another 70mn barrels to our total reserves with
experiencing a period ern Adana province following the commercial additional discoveries,” he added.
of oil growth, but its discovery of the Cukurova oilfield.
attention is firmly He told gathered press that the asset is esti- Sakarya success
focused on offshore gas. mated to contain around 8mn barrels of recov- Given the country’s almost complete reliance on
erable oil, which is expected to be produced at a imports to satisfy gas demand, Ankara is throw-
WHAT NEXT: very low price per barrel given the shallow depth ing its full weight behind efforts to develop the
Work is progressing to of the discovery. Donmez said that the Cuku- offshore Sakarya field located 150 km offshore
achieve first gas from the rova-1 and Cukurova-2 wells are the shallowest Turkey’s northern Zonguldak coast in the Black
offshore Sakarya gas field off Turkey, drilled to a depth of 430 metres and Sea.
early next year, with the 358 metres respectively. Donmez took to social media to say that Ita-
shallow-water section of Noting that output from the first two wells ly’s Saipem has completed the laying of the shal-
a tie-back pipeline now would likely average around 100-120 barrels per low-water section of a 175-km tie-back pipeline,
complete. day (bpd) in early field development, he said that with the Castoro pipelaying vessel having begun
another eight wells would be drilled by the end of work on deeper sections of the pipe.
the year. Another four other sites in Adana have The pipeline will connect Sakarya to gas pro-
been earmarked for exploration as Ankara seeks cessing facilities under construction at the port

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 28 13•July•2022