Although Turkey’s politics-first drilling campaign in the East Med has so far failed to bear fruit (MEES, 9 October), things are looking better in the Black Sea. Turkey revised upwards its reserves estimate at its August gas discovery ‘Sakarya’ by 85bcm to 405bcm (14.3tcf) after its Fatih drillship completed its operations on 17 October.
State-oil firm TPAO plans to drill two appraisal wells back to back at Sakarya once ‘Fatih’ returns from scheduled maintenance next month. Its first target will be the ‘Türkali-1’ well. TPAO adds that its recently-purchased Kanuni drillship will also be used to “carry out well tests” in the same area. (CONTINUED - 146 WORDS)