Türkiye revises up recoverable gas reserves in Black Sea after latest discovery of 58 bcm

Türkiye on Tuesday revised up the amount of recoverable reserves in a gas field off its Black Sea coast, adding its latest discovery of 58 billion cubic meters.

In a press briefing on the new natural gas reserves discovered in the offshore Sakarya field, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez noted that the country's drill ship Fatih had started drilling work in the Çaycuma-1 well on Oct. 29.

"We finished two months of work there with a discovery. According to this discovery, we calculated recoverable reserves (in the Çaycuma-1 well) to be 58 billion cubic meters (bcm)," Dönmez declared, adding that the well is located in the northwest of the Sakarya gas field.

Türkiye announced its first natural gas discovery in the Black Sea about two years ago in the Tuna-1 well, which holds 405 bcm and was the world's largest offshore find in 2020. It made another discovery in 2021 in the Amasra-1 well, holding reserves of 135 bcm.

Ankara has been working with DeGolyer and MacNaughton, a leading independent consulting firm focused on the petroleum industry, on the Black Sea reserves' re-evaluation after the country completed drilling works in 13 wells and 3D modelling of the Sakarya gas field, according to Dönmez.

After these re-evaluation efforts, the reserves in the field were revised up from 540 bcm to 652 bcm, Dönmez said, adding that the total amount of recoverable reserves in the Sakarya Field is now calculated to be 710 bcm with the latest discovery in Çaycuma-1.

"Our teams are working at full speed in accordance with the (latest) business plan. In the 100th year of our republic, we hope to bring this gas (to our citizens). Hopefully, we will have supplied the first of the gas to the system towards the end of March."