Turkey ramps up output at its largest Black Sea gas field

Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Turkey has increased daily natural gas production in its offshore Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea to four million cubic meters (mcm), according to Melih Han Bilgin, CEO of Turkish Petroleum Corporation.

The country has set a production target for the first phase of the field of 10 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.

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“We will move forward by optimising and better understanding the realities of reservoir capacity in the field,” Daily Sabah newspaper reported, citing Bilgin’s speech during the Petroleum and Natural Gas Congress and Exhibition of Türkiye.

Bilgin said that the world’s largest offshore discoveries, including Sakarya, were made in the Black Sea, adding that production in the field would gradually increase.

In August 2020, 320 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas were discovered in the Tuna-1 well in the Sakarya field. Another 85 bcm was found in October 2020, taking the total quantity of discovered gas reserves to 405 bcm.

The Black Sea gas reserves reached 540 bcm following the discovery of 135 bcm from the Amasra-1 well in June 2021, the newspaper said.

In December 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the country’s drillship Fatih discovered an additional 58 bcm of natural gas reserves at the Çaycuma-1 block in the Black Sea.

Ankara’s total gas reserves reached 710 billion cubic metres at the end of 2022, with a market value estimated at $1 trillion.