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Türkiye's state oil and gas company, Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), has reportedly purchased two drilling ships from Norway's Eldorado Drilling for $490 million to expand its deep-sea natural gas exploration capabilities, especially to be used in Libya and southern Türkiye.
The acquisition of the 2014-built West Draco and 2015-built West Dorado brings Turkish TPAO's drilling fleet to six vessels.
TPAO reportedly paid $245 million per ship, with each vessel expected to require an additional $80 million to enter service, according to Turkish maritime news outlet HaberDenizd and other media reports.
These two new ships will operate alongside TPAO's existing fleet of drillships, the Kanuni, Yavuz, Fatih, and Abdulhamid Han.
According to the Turkish maritime news outlets' report, the vessels are to be operated in fields in Libya and Mersin's Tasucu, which is in southern Türkiye.
Türkiye has seriously accelerated its hydrocarbon exploration program to reduce energy dependence. The country previously relied on chartered vessels for drilling operations, which limited long-term planning and increased costs.
TPAO's drilling campaign has yielded significant discoveries.
The Fatih drillship discovered a 540 billion cubic meter gas field in the Black Sea in 2018, while Abdulhamid Han recently found 75 billion cubic meters in the Goktepe-3 well, a find valued at approximately $30 billion in the Black Sea near the Bulgarian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Both West Draco and West Dorado measure 228 meters in length and 42 meters in width. The 59,200 deadweight tonnage vessels can drill to depths of 12,192 meters (40,000 feet) and accommodate 200 crew members.
The drillships will reportedly undergo maintenance before deployment to their assigned locations.
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