Black Sea gas to contribute billions of lira to Türkiye's budget

ANKARA

The commissioning of the first Black Sea gas in Türkiye on Thursday marks an important milestone in the nation's energy sector, with expectations of a significant budgetary contribution, according to Oguzhan Akyener, the president of Türkiye’s Energy Strategy and Political Research Center (TESPAM) in an interview with Anadolu.

Taking an average spot price of 10 liras per cubic meter, as quoted by the Turkish Energy Stock Market (EPIAS), Akyener calculated that first phase gas could contribute 35 billion liras (US$1.8 billion) to the economy.

Since the first natural gas discovery in 2020, 170 kilometers from Zonguldak on the Black Sea coast, more than 8,000 employees on land and more than 2,000 at sea have spent more than two years working in three shifts to extract gas.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend a Black Sea Gas Commissioning Ceremony on Thursday at the Filyos Gas Processing Facility to commission local gas brought onshore to the Sakarya Gas Field land facility from the seabed production facility located at a depth of 2,200 meters below sea level.

The natural gas production process will be carried out in stages, with phase one being commissioned following Thursday's ceremony, and plans for the remaining five wells to be commissioned by the end of September.

Akyener told Anadolu that the first phase production of 10 million cubic meters of gas per day could meet 5–6 % of Türkiye's annual demand, equivalent to the annually output of 3.6 billion cubic meters.

The second production phase, which is anticipated to begin in 2026, is expected to yield 40 million cubic meters—enough to meet all of the country’s residential demand.

The third phase planned for 2028 is expected to yield 60 million cubic meters of daily production.

As part of the national energy plan, Türkiye aims to be more energy self-sufficient, utilizing its own energy resources to reduce expensive gas imports.

To this end, Akyener said that "we will approach new natural gas contracts with caution" after existing contracts expire.

In August 2020, 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas were discovered in the Tuna-1 well in the Black Sea, making it the country's largest gas discovery in history.

With an additional 85 billion cubic meters discovered in October 2020, the total quantity of discovered gas reserves was 405 billion cubic meters.

Following the discovery of 135 billion cubic meters in the Amasra-1 well in June 2021, the Black Sea gas reserves totaled 540 billion cubic meters.

A further 58 billion cubic meters of gas were found in December 2022 in the Caycuma-1 well in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.

A reevaluation of gas reserves found that the country's total gas reserves would reach 710 billion cubic meters as at the end of 2022, with a market value in the region of $1 trillion.