Turkey moves at pace on Black Sea gas

The country’s NOC is fast-tracking development of Sakarya, but any need to bring in partners could complicate progress

Turkish NOC TPAO is pushing forward with work to develop the Sakarya gas discovery in the Black Sea. As Ankara prepares to renegotiate its long-term gas supply deals, its urgency is understandable. TPAO made an initial discovery in August last year at the Tuna-1 exploration well, with initial estimates suggesting the field could hold 320bn m³ of gas. With great fanfare, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in October that this had been upgraded to 405bn m³. But the Fatih drillship has only just completed a second exploration well, Turkali-1, at Sakarya. A second drillship, the Kanuni, is also en route to the Black Sea to join the field’s ten-well first phase exploratory drilling