MEOG: Sakarya award and Farzad-B query

In this week’s MEOG, we look at the award to Schlumberger and Subsea 7 of a major contract offshore Turkey and Indian interest in work doled out to an Iranian firm.

US oilfield services specialist Schlumberger this week announced that it had been awarded a contract as part of a consortium by Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) for work on the offshore Sakarya gas field.

The news comes as the country’s energy and natural resources ministry anticipates the field commencing commercial production in 2023 and providing around a third of Turkish natural gas demand by 2027. Meanwhile, the contract covers the final part of the project’s midstream section, which will tie the field to processing facilities on the Zonguldak coast and connection to the country’s gas grid.

Schlumberger and Luxembourg-registered Subsea 7 were awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of end-to-end production solutions for Sakarya.

According to Schlumberger, the project scope covers subsurface solutions to onshore production, including well completions, subsea production systems (SPS), subsea umbilicals, risers, flowlines (SURF) and an early production facility (EPF).

The American firm will carry out the well completions scope and the design, construction and commissioning of the early production facility, which it said would be capable of handling 350mn cubic feet (9.9mn cubic metres) per day of gas. Meanwhile, the SPS and SURF systems will be delivered by Schlumberger and Subsea 7’s subsea technologies, production and processing systems division OneSubsea.

Meanwhile, India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has asked the Iranian government to clarify the terms of the contract it awarded to local firm Petropars to develop the offshore Farzad-B gas field in May.

OVL was part of a consortium that discovered the field in 2008 and says that it retains a right to a 30% stake in the development project. Speaking to India’s Economic Times, OVL managing director Alok K Gupta said: “We have sought signed development contract details from Iran so that we can take an informed decision on our participation in the gas field development project.”

OVL, Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), and Oil India Ltd (OIL) held an exploration service contract for Farzad-B that expired in 2009 after the field was declared commercial.