Turkey Spuds Another Black Sea Well
Turkey has started drilling another well at the Sakarya gas discovery in the Black Sea, its energy and natural resources minister Fatih Donmez announced on Twitter on November 5.
The Turkali-1 well is being drilled by the Fatih drillship and will take 75 days to complete, Donmez said. The Sakarya field was discovered in August and hailed as the country's biggest-ever gas find. Its size was initially estimated by Turkish authorities at 320bn m3, but president Tayyip Erdogan announced in October that a further 85bn m3 had been found, raising the overall estimate to 405bn m3. Sakarya is yet to be independently appraised, however.
Turkey's government hopes to launch gas production at the site in 2023, helping the country reduce its gas imports, which come from Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and from various LNG suppliers.