Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez announced the start of work on laying a deep-sea pipeline for transporting natural gas found in the Black Sea.

“Pipeline laying in shallow water has been completed. Work at a depth of 2,500 meters in the Black Sea continues around the clock and seven days a week,” Donmez wrote on Twitter on July 11, posting a photo of the Castorone ship laying pipes.

Castorone, about 325 meters long, 35 meters wide, and weighing 56,529 tons, anchored off Filios on 6 July. The 12m pipes are first loaded onto small vessels and then onto Castorone, which operates about 500m from shore.

The giant vessel is expected to complete deep-sea pipeline-laying work by autumn.

About 6-10 wells will be connected to an offshore subsea natural gas production facility in the Sakarya gas field.

According to the plans, in 2023, about 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day will be produced and pumped into the country's network from these wells. This corresponds to 3.5-4 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It is expected that natural gas production will gradually increase to 40 million cubic meters per day and about 15 billion cubic meters in 2027-2028.

Construction of an underwater pipeline to access a natural gas field in the Black Sea started in June. The government hopes that the field will help the country get rid of its dependence on energy imports.

The Sakarya gas field, 170 km from the sea, was discovered in August 2020.

According to official figures, last year 45% of the gas used in Turkey came from Russia, while the rest came from Iran and Azerbaijan. The country's annual gas consumption rose from 48 billion cubic meters in 2020 to 60 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach 62-63 billion this year.