Turkey is bringing in another drillship for operations in the Black Sea only weeks after announcing a giant gas discovery in the area.
Turkey’s Energy Minister, Fatih Dönmez , revealed in a tweet on Sunday that the drillship named Kanuni will be joining the Fatih drillship in the Black Sea.
The Fatih has recently been used to drill the Tuna-1 well, which proved to be a significant gas discovery with the potential to help the country cut its dependence on energy imports.
According to the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , the Fatih drillship found a 320 billion cubic metres natural gas field.
If developed, Turkey’s Tuna-1 find would be transformational for the country, given its overwhelming reliance on imports and crippling energy import bill, Wood Mackenzie has recently said.
When it comes to the new drillship, Dönmez said that the Kanuni is being prepared for operations in the Black Sea, where it will support the Fatih drillship.
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Geri sayım başladı… ⏳ Denizlerimizdeki enerji bağımsızlığımızın sembolü filomuz, yeni üyesiyle daha da güçlenecek. Hazırlık çalışmaları devam eden Kanuni Sondaj Gemimiz, Karadeniz'de sondajlarına başlayacak ve Fatih'in gücüne güç katacak ? ?? pic.twitter.com/Renb3WHyjG
The minister has not revealed any further details regarding the plans for the drillship and if it is going to work on the same field as Fatih.
However, according to Reuters’ report on Sunday , the Kanuni drillship is currently located off the coast of the southern Antalya province.
It is Rystad Energy’s estimate that, if Turkey develops the giant Tuna-1 gas discovery, it could potentially save the country up to $21 billion in import costs.
This would depend on the field’s peak output, which remains to be determined pending appraisal drilling and further testing, but actual savings could be even higher as global gas prices and import costs are expected to rise in coming years, Rystad has recently said.