Aberdeen energy services giant Wood to work on Turkey’s largest gas reserve

Wood, the Aberdeen-headquartered energy and engineering services giant, has been awarded a contract for Turkey’s largest gas reserve.

The firm said it had been appointed by Turkish Petroleum as the integrated project management partner for the vast Sakarya gas field project, located some 150 kilometres off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea.

The new discovery could alleviate much of Turkey’s domestic gas import dependence, most of which comes from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran via pipelines, along with liquefied natural gas from several countries including Nigeria, Algeria and the US.

A team from Wood is to carry out the integrated project management and engineering verification for the first phase of the project which includes engineering, procurement and installation of the subsea production system, gas transport pipeline and umbilical, and onshore processing facility in Filyos.

The company has operations at Sir Ian Wood House on Altens Industrial Estate in Aberdeen. Picture: Simon Price

Andy Hemingway, president of energy, innovation and optimisation at Wood, said: “The Sakarya Gas Field will make a significant contribution to the development and growth of the Turkish energy industry and the wider economy.

“With decades of experience, Wood is uniquely positioned to deliver on this new contract, and we are delighted to be continuing our long-standing working relationship with Turkish Petroleum on this milestone project.”

Separately, stock market-listed EQTEC has signed a “strategic collaboration agreement” with Wood.

The firms will jointly “target and pursue” market opportunities for collaborative development and deployment of clean, waste-to-synthetic natural gas and waste-to-hydrogen systems and delivery of related projects.

Brian McCarthy, vice president of technology and products at Wood, said: “Wood has a long-established experience in the development of technologies for low carbon intensity fuels and hydrogen.

“By combining EQTEC's and Wood's breakthrough technologies and leveraging our combined capabilities, this collaboration will provide the opportunity to innovate and create solutions to support the path to net zero.”

Jeff Vander Linden, chief operating officer at EQTEC, added: “This collaboration agreement with Wood is an important start to our entry into these growth markets. Wood's teams are among the very best at what they do, and we are excited to have the opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

“With Wood, we believe we will open new markets and add further credibility to our assertion that EQTEC advanced gasification has a clear place in the clean energy ecosystem of the present and future.”

Earlier this month, Wood kicked off a review that could lead to the sale of a part of its business employing some 7,000 people.

The group said it had initiated a strategic review of its built environment consulting operation, which provides consulting and engineering services that focus on “environmental risks, increase climate resilience, help to build more sustainable infrastructure and improve mobility”.

In 2021, the part of the business that services the built environment end market is expected to account for some $1.3 billion (£1bn) of gross revenue within the group’s consulting business unit. It has about 7,000 staff, with some 6,000 in the US and Canada and the remainder largely in the UK.

Wood employs around 40,000 people in more than 60 countries.

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