Turkey will extract oil from three newly discovered wells in the country’s Diyarbakir and Kirklareli provinces, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Thursday.
“We have also found oil in three new onshore wells following the discovery of 405 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea,” Donmez tweeted, referring to the Tuna-1 well in the Sakarya gas field, north of Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The new wells will produce nearly 6,800 barrels of crude oil per day, he said.
The Akoba-1 (Diyarbakir), Yenisehir-1 (Diyarbakir) and Misinli-2 (Kirklareli) wells have a daily production capacity of 2,800, 3,000 and 1000 barrels, respectively, Donmez said.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the press on Thursday that his country’s average domestic daily production of oil has exceeded 61,000 barrels.
The find comes in the wake of the country’s largest-ever natural gas discovery after its drilling ship, Fatih, last year found 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Tuna-1 well in the Sakarya gas field, located about 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) north of Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
Engineering studies are ongoing to bring the Black Sea gas ashore. Turkey is determined to connect the gas to the nation’s transmission system by 2023.
The first gas flow from the field is expected in 2023, with an envisaged annual gas flow of 5-10 bcm.
The field is expected to gradually increase to reach a production plateau of around 15 bcm as of 2025.
The country earlier said it planned to complete the drilling of 40 production wells in the Sakarya gas field by 2028.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said, “There is no need to wait for so many wells to be drilled for initial production.”
“After the first five to six, we can get it into production. By 2027-2028, we will have reached the maximum level of production,” he added.
Dönmez suggested on Thursday prospects the country could be announcing a new gas discovery in the Black Sea
Xinhua News Agency