Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 07 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

TPAO seeks partners for

Black Sea gas field

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

Week 07 17•February•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13