Pipeline damage halts Black Sea gas

Offshore staff

ANKARA, Turkey --Turkey's TPAO has shut down production from its South Akcacoka operations in the Black Sea.

This follows an incident last Friday when a trawler's net became entangled with a spur line connecting the Akkaya field with the main Akcakoka gas export line.

All production from Akkaya and the East Ayazli field (collectively 15MMcf/d prior to the incident) has since been suspended while TPAO assesses the damage to the export line.

Most of the output had been from two of the three Akkaya wells. Production from East Ayazli had tailed off to less than 5MMcf/d, with problems in the wells requiring remedial perforations and wireline interventions.

Output from the Ayazli platform had also been delayed due to a fault in the ball valve in the subsea export line. Once these problems have been resolved, gross production from the project should average around 30MMcf/d during 2008, according to partner Stratic Energy.

11/26/2007