Turkiye laying first gas pipeline in Black Sea

By Azernews

By News Center

Turkiye is laying its first gas pipeline in the Black Sea, where a total of 540 billion cubic meters of natural gas has been discovered, Yeni Shafak daily reports.

Efforts to bring the natural gas from the Black Sea to the consumption of citizens and households have gained momentum. The Filyos Natural Gas Processing Facility, where the gas will be processed on land, is being constructed while preparations on the wells are continuing at sea. Some 4,200 personnel and 16 ships, of which three are engaged in drilling, are working in the area to support the whole process.

The Bahamian flagged ship Castoro 10, which will carry out pipe placement in shallow parts, passed through the Dardanelles on June 5 and reached Filyos as of June 7.

The first pipes of the 170-kilometer-long gas pipeline, which will carry the Black Sea gas along the seabed, will be laid starting from the coast on June 10. Following the completion of the infrastructure and superstructure works, the pipes will be installed on the seabed, beginning at a depth of 50 meters in the shallow water section.

Castoro 10 ship will lay and install roughly 5 kilometers of pipes in the shallow area. The pipelaying procedure will be carried out by a Castorone ship at a depth of 2,000 meters in the deep sea, which is the most essential stage in the aforementioned operations. The ship is now in the Eastern Mediterranean and is scheduled to arrive in Turkey in July.

The pipeline, which will be around 170 kilometers, will be installed from the shallow to deep water section in June. The pipeline installation is projected to take approximately five months.

First, six to 10 wells will be connected to the production system to be established under the sea at the Sakarya Gas Field, and 10 million cubic meters of gas will be produced daily from these wells and delivered to Turkiye's natural gas network grid in 2023. While this amount corresponds to 3.5-4 billion cubic meters on an annual basis, production will gradually increase. The highest production level in the Black Sea is predicted in 2027-2028, with 40 million cubic meters of natural gas per day and around 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.

BOTAS (Petroleum Pipeline Corporation) will complete the first section of the pipeline, allowing gas to reach consumers, on November 6, as part of its efforts to integrate Black Sea gas into the system by 2023.

“Expectations for Black Sea gas are quite high. Our Black Sea gas will be commissioned in 2023. As BOTAS, we need to be ready systematically when our gas comes into play. We planned all infrastructure works and started our investments. As of November 6, we will complete our infrastructure and be able to buy natural gas. BOTAS needs to be ready systematically when our Black Sea gas comes into operation in 2023. All infrastructure works related to this have been planned and investments have been initiated,” BOTAS General Manager Burhan Ozcan said at the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

He provided information about the capacity that will be created with the completion of the infrastructure works.

“As the gas reaches land, natural gas will be transported to our intra-network. We will continue our activities related to both the establishment of receiving terminal measurement systems and the laying of pipelines. The carrying capacity of our infrastructure will be 50 million cubic meters per day and 18 to 20 billion cubic meters per year. We have completed our detailed engineering studies related to our second phase works, which are approximately 211 kilometers long, up to Adapazari. The day the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) brings 40 million ashore, we will be in a position to carry it," he stressed.