On Thursday, Turkey’s energy ministry received a newly refurbished Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit for the Sakarya gas field, which holds an estimated 700 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea. This development is expected to decrease Turkey’s reliance on imported natural gas from Russia.
Until last year, Turkey had produced very little natural gas, but the first phase of the Sakarya project’s development began operations, aimed at generating 10 million cubic meters per day for Turkey’s power generation sector. The recently acquired FPSO, named BW Opportunity (formerly Cidade de San Mateus), will double this output by 2026. As additional wells are brought online in the coming years, Turkey hopes to boost production to 40 million cubic meters daily.
The FPSO was delivered to a port in Canakkale by a Boskalis semisubmersible heavy lift ship for further preparations. It is scheduled to be deployed in 2025 and is designed for continuous operation until 2045, excluding any life extension measures.
Turkey’s State Petroleum Corporation purchased the FPSO secondhand to expedite the process, as constructing a new unit would take approximately five years. The BW Opportunity was refurbished in Singapore and delivered to Turkey within one year.
Currently, Turkey consumes around 135 million cubic meters of natural gas daily, with consumption doubling during the coldest winter months. The combined production from the first and second phases of Sakarya will cover about 15 % of Turkey’s average national demand.
Until 2023, Turkey relied on imports for 98 % of its natural gas. Over the past three years, in response to rising global LNG prices due to increased European demand, Turkey shifted its import strategy towards pipeline gas, with about 60 % of its imported supply now coming from Russia.
