Turkey has started delivering the pipes that will be used for the pipeline beneath the Black Sea to bring onshore the natural gas that the nation discovered in the region, the country’s energy and natural resources minister said.

The first batch delivered to the onshore natural gas processing facility at Filyos port in the northern Black Sea province of Zonguldak constitutes 20% of the seabed pipeline that will stretch around 170 kilometers (105.6 miles).

"The pipes that will carry the Black Sea gas from sea to land have started to arrive at our Filyos Natural Gas Processing Facility," Fatih Dönmez said on Twitter on Sunday.

Scheduled to be constructed this year, the pipeline will connect the wells in the region to the main grid. Pipes are scheduled to be brought to the port in 10 separate shipments, which are expected to continue through June this year, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

Located some 150 kilometers off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea, the Sakarya gas field is home to the country’s largest-ever natural gas discovery. Around 540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas has been found there since August 2020.

Ankara aims to start pumping the gas to the national grid in 2023, the centennial of the founding of modern Turkey, with sustained plateau production starting in 2027-2028. The first phase is expected to see some 10 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas being delivered per day.

Turkey is expected to kick start the deepwater pipe laying once all the tubes have been brought to the Filyos port. The process is expected to take about five months.