Turkey’s first drillship has started drilling activities at a new borehole in the Black Sea, the country’s energy and natural resources minister said Saturday.
Fatih Dönmez and the state energy company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) said on Twitter the Fatih vessel arrived at the Türkali-4 well to carry out the new drilling.
“We are one step closer to our goal with each new well we open,” Dönmez said.
Within one year, Turkey has completed five deep-sea drillings in the Black Sea at the Sakarya field, where it has discovered more than half a trillion cubic meters of natural gas since August last year.
The nation in June announced it discovered 135 billion cubic meters (bcm) of additional natural gas in the Amasra-1 borehole in the northern Sakarya field, raising the total discovery in the region to 540 bcm.
Last year, the Fatih drillship discovered 405 bcm of natural gas in the Tuna-1 well some 170 kilometers (about 106 miles) off the Black Sea, in the country’s biggest discovery.
Fatih has so far carried out activities at the Tuna-1 well, Türkali-1, Türkali-2 and Türkali-3 as well as Amasra-1 exploration wells, where operations extended to depths of up to 3,950 meters (12,959 feet).
The nation’s third drilling vessel, Kanuni, started well-completion operations in Türkali-2 last month.
Ankara aims to start pumping gas from the Sakarya field to its main grid in 2023, with sustained plateau production starting in 2027 or 2028.
