The recently discovered natural gas field in the Black Sea will meet almost a third of Turkey’s domestic needs when it reaches peak production by 2027, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said, revealing details of his ambitious commissioning schedule for the field last year.
In 2023, Turkey will be able to start gas production with an initial annual capacity of 3.5 billion cubic meters, Donmez said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg News in the Turkish capital Ankara. The goal is to increase this figure to 15 billion cubic meters per year within four years of the start of production, which is about a quarter of today’s production in the European Union.
The state energy company Turkiye Petrolleri AO plans to develop about 40 wells in four stages at the Cakapia field. Its gas reserves are estimated at about 540 billion cubic meters.
Donmez said the company has no plans to hire international oil companies, as state-owned Trao is able to handle the task on its own. In the first half of 2022, Turkey will conduct seismic surveys in another area, west of Cacapia.
Turkey is also working on the field in its Mediterranean economic zone, but there are political differences over the country’s attempts to look for gas in waters that are said to belong to EC countries such as Greece and Cyprus.
Turkey seeks to reduce its annual electricity costs by about $ 44 billion by reducing its dependence on imports, which currently cover almost all of the country’s gas consumption. Demand is expected to grow by a quarter this year to about 60 billion cubic meters due to low hydropower generation caused by dry weather as well as high coal prices.