Page 12 - MEOG Week 07 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

TPAO seeks partners for Black Sea gas field

TURKEY TURKISH Petroleum Corp. (TPAO) is reported Ruseckas, executive director at IHS Markit, said:
to be speaking to IOCs about potential collab- “TPAO does not have a deepwater track record
oration on the development of the offshore and it would reduce timing and delivery risk to
Sakarya gas field, located in the Turkish sector partner with an experienced operator.”
of the Black Sea. Meanwhile, with 16 bcm per year of Turkey’s
The news comes as the company presses long-term gas supply contracts up for renegotia-
forward with appraisal work on the asset which tion this year, the development of the discovery
Ankara sees as a game-changer for the country’s will provide Ankara with an alternative to costly
energy security. imports once it comes into operation.
Company sources were quoted by Bloomb- The company has kicked off an ambitious
erg last week as saying that Sakarya will require fast-tracking appraisal programme, with Fatih
an estimated capital budget of around $3.2bn to having recently completed drilling work at the
deliver first gas and TPAO has reached out to Türkali-1 well.
several IOCs to secure funding and a develop- The drillship will soon be joined by the Kan-
ment partner to proceed with the project. The uni vessel, which it acquired in April 2020, fol-
reports follow earlier comments from the com- lowing the completion of maintenance which is
pany’s CEO, Melih Han Bilgin, saying that TPAO being carried out at the Port of Filyos.
would invite international partners to collabo- The company is also closing in on a deal with
rate in the country’s energy sector. Norway’s Dolphin Drilling to purchase a fourth
The company made the find at the Tuna-1 drillship.
well with its first drillship – Fatih – in August last Fatih, Kanuni and the new vessel will be used
year, announcing the discovery of 320bn cubic to carry out the company’s 10-well appraisal
metres of gas, which was upgraded to 405 bcm drilling campaign, with Bilgin saying recently
two months later. that testing would kick off on the Türkali wells
TPAO anticipates first gas in 2023 with flows in March. The results are anticipated in June this
following the drilling of 10 wells, with a further year.
30 wells to be drilled to reach a plateau of 15 bcm Bilgin said last week that drilling at Türkali-2
per year by 2025. has reached 3,272 metres. He was quoted by local
Citing the lack of an independent review, media during a visit to Filyos where processing
international observers have cast doubt over facilities for landed gas from Sakarya.
the scale of the find as well as TPAO’s ability to The port on the country’s Zonguldak coast
develop it alone. will be connected to the field via a dedicated 150-
Writing on Twitter last week, Laurent km subsea pipeline.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 17•February•2021