Turkey Welcomes Its Inaugural Floating Gas Platform 'Osman Gazi' at Black Sea Harbor

A recent publication by Daily Sabah highlights the arrival of Turkey’s inaugural floating natural gas production platform, Osman Gazi, at Filyos Port along the Black Sea. This state-of-the-art facility is set to operate for two decades and aims to significantly boost gas production from the Sakarya field, increasing output from 9 million to an remarkable 20 million cubic meters daily.

Onc it becomes operational in mid-2026, Osman Gazi will handle up to 10.5 million cubic meters of natural gas each day and will transfer around 10 million cubic meters per day directly to land.Officials estimate that this surge in production coudl satisfy the energy needs of approximately 8 million households throughout Turkey.

The processed gas will travel through a ample pipeline stretching 161 kilometers before being integrated into the national grid in a usable form. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar emphasized that this initiative is crucial for enhancing Turkey’s energy independence by lessening its dependence on foreign energy sources.

Currently, over 90% of Turkey’s energy requirements are met through imports. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort within the country to tap into its own natural gas reserves located in the Black Sea region.

In line with this goal, TPAO (the Turkish Petroleum Corporation) acquired the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit from BW Offshore earlier this year. The vessel made its journey to Turkey aboard Boskalis’ heavy transport ship Boka Vanguard and reached Turkish shores last September.

After docking in Turkey,Osman Gazi underwent technical enhancements at a shipyard in Çanakkale starting September 26,2024. Following several months of refurbishment work,it was successfully floated out on May 27,2025.

The vessel then made its way towards Istanbul and navigated through the Bosphorus Strait on May 29—coincidentally coinciding with Istanbul’s conquest anniversary—where a ceremonial send-off took place at Dolmabahçe Palace attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan alongside Minister Bayraktar before heading toward Filyos Port.

Osman Gazi is quite an impressive structure; it measures about 298.5 meters long and can accommodate up to140 crew members onboard comfortably while being equipped for extensive offshore operations.

Turkey has been actively expanding its offshore capabilities over recent years; notable vessels include drillships like Fatih launched back in 2017 which discovered significant reserves at Sakarya field back in August of that year followed by Yavuz (2018), Kanuni (2020), and Abdülhamid Han (2021).Recently announced findings revealed an additional reserve estimated at around75 billion cubic meters located deep beneath sea level during drilling activities at Goktepe-3 well as reported earlier this april.