Picking up from where it left off in 2022, Türkiye has multiple major projects in the pipeline planned to commence in 2023, from the delivery of the first gas from its vast reserve in the Black Sea to the launching of the power generation from its first nuclear power plant.
The projects build on accelerated efforts to help Türkiye scrap its external dependence and mitigate the effects of the global energy crisis. Ankara has been seeking ways to secure gas supplies, as well as to diversify sources with renewables and nuclear projects.
The country currently has seven international natural gas pipelines, four liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants, two of which are floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), and two underground natural gas storage facilities.
Türkiye’s first FSRU facility in the Aegean province of Izmir has a daily capacity of 20 million cubic meters of gas to feed the grid.
The second facility, Ertuğrul Gazi FSRU, has a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters and an annual regasification capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters. The maximum daily gasification capacity of the ship is 28 million cubic meters.
Türkiye is on track to open its third FSRU in the northwestern Gulf of Saros.
Seeking to secure energy supplies and cope with soaring energy prices, Türkiye recently marked an increase in capacity at its first underground natural gas storage facility, in what officials said will make it Europe’s biggest storage site in the seas.
The capacity increase enables the storage of 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas at the Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, up from an earlier capacity of 3.2 billion. The site’s daily withdrawal capacity of 28 million cubic meters (mcm) has been increased to 75 mcm.
The facility is expected to meet 25% of Türkiye’s daily gas needs during intense winter days.
Work related to increasing the capacity at the country’s second storage unit, Tüz Gölü (Lake Tuz), is also underway.
Located in central Aksaray province, the facility currently has the capacity to store natural gas measuring up to 1.2 bcm on a yearly basis, a figure that is planned to be expanded to 5.4 billion cubic meters within this year.
1st national gas
Meanwhile, in what will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye, Türkiye is planning to start natural gas flows from its Sakarya gas field by the end of the first quarter.
The total volume of gas Türkiye has gradually discovered in the offshore fields since 2020 now amounts to 710 billion cubic meters, a find that is estimated to have a market value of $1 trillion (TL 18.72 trillion).
The increase came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 26 said reserves in the Sakarya field were revised to 652 bcm, up from 540 bcm previously. Another 58 bcm of gas was found in another offshore field nearby.
Türkiye announced its first gas discovery in August 2020 in the Tuna-1 well, which was then estimated at 405 bcm and was the world’s largest offshore find in 2020. It made another discovery in 2021 in the Amasra-1 well, which was at the time said to be holding around 135 bcm of gas. It lastly discovered an additional 58 bcm at the Çaycuma-1 field.
Power generation from 1st nuclear plant
The new year will witness another major milestone, as Ankara aims to start operating the first reactor at Akkuyu, its first nuclear power plant, by the middle of 2023.
Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is being built by Russia’s state-run nuclear energy agency Rosatom on the Mediterranean coast.
The scheduled completion of the first unit along with the delivery of nuclear fuel is set for the first half of this year, making it the first plant to generate electricity from nuclear in the country.
The remaining three reactors are due to start operation by the end of 2026, at a rate of one per year to ultimately have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts (MW). Once completed, the plant is expected to produce up to 10% of domestic electricity needs.
The country has plans for at least two other large-scale nuclear power plants, one on the Black Sea coast and a third plant in the Thrace region.
Oil discoveries
Türkiye is entering the new year with the discovery of 150 million barrels of oil reserves in Gabar Mountain in the southeastern city of Şırnak.
The reserve is said to be valued at $12 billion and is said to have been among the 10 largest oil fields discovered on land in 2022 in the world. With the find, Türkiye’s proved oil reserves increased from 450 million barrels to 600 million barrels.
Türkiye had also announced a discovery of $1 billion worth of oil reserves in the Çukurova field in the southern Adana province in late June. The quantity of recoverable oil from the field is expected to reach up to 8 million barrels.
Oil consumption in Türkiye is approximately 950,000 barrels per day, while production is around 65,000 barrels. With the discovery, the country is planning to produce 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily in 2023.
Growing renewables
Meanwhile, Türkiye’s first and the world’s largest wave power plant will be established in Ordu in the Black Sea region. The project is planned to have an installed capacity of 77 megawatts.
Construction of the power plant will begin in the spring and the facility is expected to be commissioned within a year after the start of construction.
Moreover, at least 1,000 megawatts of wind and solar energy capacity each is expected to be added to the country’s renewable portfolio in 2023.
The country’s total installed electricity capacity reached over 100 gigawatts last year, with more than half from renewables, including hydro, wind, solar and geothermal.
Renewables accounted for more than 95% of new capacity increases in the country in 2021. The country achieved a record-high annual increase in wind energy in 2021 with the addition of approximately 1,750 megawatts, up from the previous all-time high of 1,248 megawatts added in 2016.
After a hydropower capacity of around 31,600 megawatts, wind is the second-biggest renewable source of electricity at 11,307 megawatts, a figure that is expected to have exceeded 12,000 as of the end of 2022. Türkiye’s installed solar power reached 9,120 MW as of the end of October.