Turkey will be extending government support for the massive project to develop the natural gas field it discovered in the Black Sea, according to a presidential decree.
The state energy company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) project will be provided tax cuts, the country's Official Gazette said. The project's total fixed investment stands at around TL 145.1 billion ($9.9 billion) and will last for 11 years, it noted.
Turkey is building an industrial complex that will process the gas the country discovered in the Sakarya gas field, located some 150 km off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea. The facility is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2023, Daily Sabah reported.
The country’s first drilling vessel, Fatih, has discovered 540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Sakarya gas field since August 2020.
Ankara plans to begin pumping gas from the southwest Black Sea field in 2023 but must first build an offshore pipeline network and processing facilities.
The TPAO project, which will employ 1,018 people, will be exempt from customs tax, value-added tax (VAT) and some other taxes, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette.
Expansion of the project over the next 10 years is expected to eventually lift annual production capacity to 14 bcm. The gas extracted from the gas field will be brought onshore through a pipeline that will be laid beneath the Black Sea.
