Italian offshore engineering contractor Saipem has picked up another piece of Turkey’s fast-expanding Sakarya gas development, securing the commissioning work for the country’s first floating gas production unit.
GOE Petrol Sanayi has awarded Saipem an eight-month contract covering commissioning services for the Osman Gazi FPU, which is being prepared to start work at Turkish Petroleum’s Sakarya field in the Black Sea. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The award follows an operation readiness and assurance support contract handed to Saipem in April and extends the Italian contractor’s involvement beyond the large subsea construction packages it already holds on the development.
Turkey’s energy ministry said last month that Osman Gazi is expected to leave Filyos at the end of September and enter service during the fourth quarter following offshore installation, testing and commissioning work.
The FPU is central to phase two of Sakarya, which is designed to double Black Sea gas production to around 20m cu m per day by the end of this year, enough to supply roughly 8m Turkish households.
The 298.5 m-long unit can process up to 10.5m cu m of gas per day and transfer 10m cu m. It will be connected to 10 wells through two manifolds and a 161 km gas export line. The platform started life as a South Korean-built cargo ship in 1989 and was converted into a floating production unit in Singapore in 2008.
After leaving Singapore in July 2024, the vessel underwent extensive refurbishment in Turkey, including steel renewal, deck strengthening and equipment overhaul, before arriving at Filyos last year for completion of its production modules.
The latest award adds to a sizeable haul for Saipem at Sakarya. Splash reported last September that Saipem secured a $1.5bn contract from Turkish Petroleum for phase three of the development. That job covers EPCI of eight rigid flowlines and a 24-inch gas export pipeline stretching around 183 km between the deepwater field and Filyos. Offshore installation is due to be carried out by the Castorone in 2027.
Saipem followed that in January with another $425m package to connect the newly discovered Goktepe gas resource into the phase-three infrastructure. The additional scope covers three pipelines totalling about 153 km and associated subsea structures, again with Castorone lined up for the offshore campaign.
The company’s involvement goes back further. Saipem was part of the SLB, Subsea7 and Saipem grouping brought into phase two in 2023, while its first Sakarya construction contract dates to 2021. Saipem has said phase-one work has been completed and phase-two activities are nearing completion as the later stages move ahead.
Sakarya was discovered in 2020 around 170 km off Turkey’s Black Sea coast in water depths of roughly 2,150 m. Production started in 2023 and has since expanded to 12 wells. Turkish government figures put cumulative production since start-up at 6.7bn cu m, with the field accounting for 92% of domestic gas output as of May.
The buildout does not end with Osman Gazi. Ankara is targeting 40m-45m cu m per day of Black Sea gas production in 2028, when a second floating production unit is planned to enter service. For Saipem, the Turkish award follows another busy summer of offshore contracting. In August, the company landed a roughly $1.8bn EPCI contract in the Middle East after securing about $2bn of work on Eni’s Kutei North Hub FPSO project in Indonesia and around $400m of additional Aramco work.
“Join the companies that smart energy professionals follow – because when you’re featured on GEN, the industry pays attention.”
