VIVA – President of Turkey Racep Tayyip Erdogan announced, his country has discovered natural gas reserves of 320 billion cubic meters in the Black Sea. The discovery of this new gas source is the largest in Turkish history.
Erdogan told the media on Friday that the gas reserves were discovered by the oil and gas drilling vessel Fatih. The ship is known to have been operating in the Black Sea area since last July.
Erdogan said all tests and technical engineering work to determine the source of the new gas had been completed. This gas finding is said to be part of a larger gas reserve source in the area.
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“God willing, more (gas sources) will come,” he said as quoted by the BBC, Saturday, August 22, 2020.
Erdogan further explained that the extraction of these gas reserves will begin in 2023. Turkey’s dependence on energy imports will also decline significantly due to this finding.
“(Turkey) will not stop until we become net energy exporters,” he said.
However, a number of energy experts say, it will take up to a decade to convert the gas and sell it commercially. The investment required is not small, up to billions of US dollars.
On that occasion Erdogan also announced that Turkey had sent a ship to carry out drilling surveys in the East Mediterranean area. The Oruc Reis ship departed on August 10 and was accompanied by five naval ships.
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