Castorone sails to Black Sea Sakarya Phase 2 pipeline location

Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castorone should by now have reached the deepwater Sakarya gas field on the Turkish sector of the Black Sea, after passing through the Bosphorus Strait Dec. 27.

Turkish Petroleum - Offshore Technology Center (TP – OTC) has commissioned the vessel to install the pipelay system for the second-phase development.

Castorone initially traversed the 36-nautical-mile route through the Dardanelles Strait in about 6 hours, before continuing across the Sea of Marmara and then crossing the Bosphorus Strait.

Saipem, as part of a consortium, is responsible for the EPCI of Sakarya 2. Using the Castorone, it will install a new 158-km, 16-inch pipeline in a maximum water depth of 2,200 m, and a 21-km, 16-inch intra-field pipeline at the same depth.

In the second half of 2022, the company completed work on the first phase of Sakarya, which is about 150 km from the coast of Ereğli. 

TP-OTC has also just contracted Subsea7 to provide inspection, repair and maintenance services for the same development.

Subsea7 will manage the program from its offices in Istanbul and Aberdeen, and it will provide two work class ROVs and other equipment/construction personnel onboard TP-OTC’s light construction vessel Mukavemet during offshore operations in 2025 and 2026.

In May 2024, TP-OTC expanded the Subsea Integration Alliance EPCI contract for the Phase 2a development of the Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea. The Subsea Integration Alliance then installed a floating production unit—Turkey’s first—for the project.