The newly acquired floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform is expected to be operational by 2026 and help Türkiye double its natural gas production at the vast reserve in the Black Sea, a senior official said Friday.

The floating facility, purchased last year, entered Türkiye's waters and docked in the northwestern Çanakkale province on Thursday.

With the platform, Türkiye will launch the second phase of production at the Sakarya Gas Field, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Friday.

The reserve, which has been discovered gradually since August 2020, is believed to contain 710 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.

Gas currently extracted from the field is processed and distributed through a facility at the Port of Filyos in the northern Zonguldak province.

The facility is currently producing 6 million cubic meters of gas per day, Bayraktar said. The output is expected to increase to 10 million cubic meters daily by the first quarter of 2025, meeting around 7% of Türkiye's domestic consumption, the minister noted.

With the activation of the FPSO, daily production will reach 20 million cubic meters by 2026, according to Bayraktar.

The facility will undergo preparations at a port in Çanakkale before being moved to Filyos in 2025 for full activation. Once operational, it is expected to continue production in the Sakarya Gas Field for at least 20 years, the minister said.

Bayraktar also mentioned plans for the third phase of the project, which might involve acquiring a second floating platform to further enhance production capacity.

"Our Phase III works are underway. We might continue these works with a second production platform. We are proceeding with an aim to increase the output," Bayraktar said.

He also said Türkiye plans to drill a new exploratory well in the Black Sea this year. His earlier statements signaled this could potentially be carried out near the Black Sea province of Sinop.