Turkey will be extending government support for the massive project to develop the natural gas field it discovered in the Black Sea, according to a presidential decree Wednesday.
The state energy company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) project will be provided tax cuts, the country's Official Gazette said. The project's total fixed investment stands at around TL 145.1 billion ($9.9 billion) and will last for 11 years, it noted.
Turkey is building an industrial complex that will process the gas the country discovered in the Sakarya gas field, located some 150 kilometers (93 miles) off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea. The facility is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2023.
The country’s first drilling vessel, Fatih, has discovered 540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Sakarya gas field since August 2020.
Turkey is fully dependent on gas imports, mainly from Russia, but the Sakarya field is expected to reduce those imports by about a quarter once it reaches peak production.
Ankara plans to begin pumping gas from the southwest Black Sea field in 2023 but must first build an offshore pipeline network and processing facilities.
The TPAO project, which will employ 1,018 people, will be exempt from customs tax, value-added tax (VAT) and some other taxes, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette.
Expansion of the project over the next 10 years is expected to eventually lift annual production capacity to 14 bcm.
Ankara has so far insisted it would develop the gas field on its own, aiming to pump gas to the mainland grid in small quantities in 2023 and to reach sustained peak production in four to five years.
The gas extracted from the gas field will be brought onshore through a pipeline that will be laid beneath the Black Sea.
The country in January started delivering the equipment and has been expected to kick-start laying the deep-water pipes once all the tubes have been brought to the Port of Filyos.
Scheduled to be constructed this year, the 170-kilometer pipeline will connect the wells in the region to the main grid.
The 39-kilometer-long first phase is due for completion this November, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Monday, citing the Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ), the organization responsible for its construction.
BOTAŞ officials said the company will bring the gas ashore from the Filyos Port located in the coastal Zonguldak province for connection to the national natural gas transmission network.
The first phase of construction of the Western Black Sea Natural Gas Pipeline section will be carried out in two stages, Anadolu Agency (AA) said.
The two stages involve the construction and then the connection of the West Black Sea Gas Measurement Station to the national transmission network with a high-pressure steel natural gas pipeline along with related valve systems.
Progress has been swift. Since March 7, when steel pipe stringing started, and as of April 14, 7 kilometers have already been laid along the project’s land route. The construction of the measurement station and the first phase of the pipeline section has also begun.