Gas from the Black Sea: Turkish platform Osman Gazi sets sail on Saturday
The floating production unit is to double output at the Sakarya gas field from 9.5 to 20 million cubic metres a day. Production is due to start in 2027.
Symbolic image · Photo: Gary Bembridge from London, UK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Turkey is sending its first floating gas production and processing platform into the Black Sea. The Osman Gazi is due to leave the port of Filyos in Zonguldak province on Saturday, 17 October, and head to its work site at the Sakarya gas field, the state news agency Anadolu reported. The field lies around 170 kilometres offshore. According to Anadolu, the platform will double domestic gas output from Sakarya.
Daily production is to rise from 9.5 to 20 million cubic metres. The unit is 298.5 metres long and 56 metres wide, has room for 140 crew and is designed to operate for 20 years. It will process the gas so that it can be fed directly into the national transmission network. First gas is to be lit this year, with actual production starting in 2027. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled the platform in July 2024.
Anadolu puts the value of daily output at today's prices at almost 10 million dollars, and the annual contribution to the Turkish economy at around 3.5 billion dollars. For Turkey, which imports most of its gas, Sakarya is a key project.