Turkey Pipeline Partners To Pump Natural Gas From The Black Sea, President Erdoan: We Will Transfer 10 Million Cubic Meters Per Day By 2023

JAKARTA - Turkey on Monday laid the first pipeline for a pipeline that will carry onshore natural gas, which the country finds in the Black Sea, as it plans to start pumping gas as early as next year.

The pipeline, which will connect the well in the Sakarya gas field to the gas processing facility at Filyos Port in the northern Black Sea province of Zonguldak, will start pumping gas in the first quarter of 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Located about 150 kilometers (93 miles) off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea, the gas field is home to the country's largest natural gas discovery. The drilling vessel Fatih discovered 540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas there in August 2020.

The pipeline, which will span some 170 kilometers and connect wells in the area to the main grid, will be laid at a water depth of 2,200 meters.

"In the first quarter of 2023, we will transfer 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, which will be produced in the first phase, to our national transmission system", President Erdogan said at an event in Filyos, quoted by the Daily Sabah on June 14.

"The Sakarya Gas Field will reach peak production from 2026", President Erdogan continued.

Work on the gas processing facility at Filyos is also ongoing. Around 4,200 workers are said to be involved in the construction process.

President Erdogan said Turkey sees energy as the key to regional cooperation, and not an area of tension and conflict.

"We will continue our struggle in various ways until we make Turkey a country that really solves the problem of energy supply security", he said.

It is known that the gas field in the Black Sea is the site of Turkey's first deep-sea natural gas production. The first phase will carry 10 million cubic meters of gas per day, a figure that will increase to 40 million cubic meters in the second phase, according to Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez.

Production of 35,000 pipes to be laid on the seabed has been completed, he said, adding that 95 percent of the pipes had already been shipped.