Türkiye can supply the grid with 276 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from its various gas infrastructure projects, in a bid to reach its energy supply security goals.
The country invested in various natural gas infrastructure projects and achieved historic success in the gas sector in the last couple of years. Anadolu compiled the important developments in the country's natural gas sector ahead of the country's 100th anniversary of the republic.
Türkiye has various facilities both on land and at sea to ensure natural gas supply security.
Floating LNG storage and regasification units (FSRU) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, which are important components of the natural gas infrastructure, enable the supply of natural gas from different sources and countries without being dependent on pipelines.
Türkiye is among the world's leading countries in this field with its three FSRUs and two LNG processing facilities.
Marmara Ereglisi LNG Terminal and Egegaz LNG Terminal started operation in 1994 and 2006, respectively. Etki Liman FSRU in Izmir started operating in 2016, while Ertuğrul Gazi FSRU in Hatay and Saros FSRU located in the northeast of the Aegean Sea started operating in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, the country's first gas storage facility, was put into service in 2007 and Tuz Golu Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility was put into service in 2017.
Through its LNG, FSRU and storage facilities, the country has the capacity to deliver a total of 276 million cubic meters of gas to the system per day.
Etki Liman FSRU, Ertugrul Gazi FSRU and Saros FSRU each have a daily regasification capacity of 28 million cubic meters. Marmara LNG Terminal can supply 37 million cubic meters of natural gas to the system daily, and Egegaz LNG Terminal can supply 40 million cubic meters of natural gas to the system each day.
A total of 75 million cubic meters of gas can be pumped into the network daily from Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, and 40 million cubic meters from Tuz Golu Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility.
- Fatih becomes 1st ship to discover gas at sea
Türkiye has several ships for exploration and drilling activities in its seas. Drilling activities are carried out by Fatih, Yavuz, Kanuni and Abdulhamid Han ships, and seismic exploration activities with Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa and MTA Oruc Reis ships.
The first seismic exploration activities at sea started in 2013 with Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa and MTA Oruc Reis seismic exploration vessels. After collecting data on oil and natural gas resources in the Black Sea, Mediterranean and Marmara Sea, drilling operations started with the Fatih and Yavuz ships.
Fatih, which joined the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) inventory in 2017, is Türkiye's first national drilling ship. Fatih made its first drilling mission in the Black Sea on July 20, 2020. After a month of work at the Tuna-1 location off the coast of Zonguldak, the first success story came on August 21.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the Fatih Drilling Ship discovered 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the Tuna-1 well.
With this discovery, Türkiye entered a new era in its natural gas journey.
On October 17, 2020, an additional 85 billion cubic meters of gas was discovered, increasing the total amount to 405 billion cubic meters.
Continuing its exploration activities in Amasra-1, Fatih made a new discovery of 135 billion cubic meters on June 4, 2021. After the latest discovery, the natural gas reserves in the country increased to 540 billion cubic meters.
With three-dimensional modeling commissioned by an international evaluation company, the reserve size in the Sakarya field was revised to 652 billion cubic meters. Towards the end of December 2022, a new reserve of 58 billion cubic meters was discovered in the Caycuma-1 well in the Sakarya Gas Field, increasing the total reserve to 710 billion cubic meters.
Türkiye targets approximately 3.6 billion cubic meters of annual gas production from the Black Sea gas. Initially, 10 million cubic meters per day will be produced and increase to 40 million cubic meters per day in the second phase and 60 million cubic meters per day in the third phase.
In a historic first, the country started using gas discovered in the Black Sea on April 20, 2023. Currently, daily production in Sakarya Gas Field has reached 4 million cubic meters.
- Pipelines used for gas import
The country also imports natural gas via pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Through the TurkStream pipeline, the country receives 31.5 billion cubic meters annually from Russia and 16 billion cubic meters through the Blue Stream pipeline.
The annual capacity of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) from Azerbaijan is 16 billion cubic meters, and the annual capacity of the Iran-Turkey Natural Gas Pipeline stands at 10 billion cubic meters.