Erdogan announces historic Turkish gas discovery in Black Sea

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey announced its largest ever natural gas discovery on Friday, a 320 billion cubic meter (11.3 trillion cubic feet) Black Sea field, which President Tayyip Erdogan said was part of even larger reserves and could thus coming soon as 2023 streaming.

If the gas could be extracted commercially, the discovery could help Ankara reduce its current dependence on imports – from countries such as Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan – for most of its energy needs.

“Turkey has realized the largest natural gas discovery of its history in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said, adding that ultimately Turkey aims to become a net energy exporter.

The Fatih drill began operating last month in the Tuna-1 zone, about 100 nautical miles north of the Turkish coast in the western Black Sea.

“This reserve is actually part of a much larger resource. God willing, much more will come. As a country that has been dependent on gas from the outside for years, we are now looking to the future with more security, ‘Erdogan said. “There will be no stopping until we become a net exporter of energy.”

Any reduction in Turkey’s energy import bill, which stood at $ 41 billion last year, would boost the government’s finances and create a chronic current account deficit that has helped the lira to push for upside against the dollar.

“I can safely say that with the economic and exploratory potential we will remove the current account deficit from our country’s agenda,” said Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, speaking from the Fatih deck.

The lira TRYTOM = 3 has strengthened since Erdogan first told energy executives on Wednesday that he had “good news” to announce. However, it slipped when he detailed the finding and was down 0.4% to 1330 GMT.

Officials and analysts had warned that it could take up to decades for Black Sea gas to be found online, and would need to invest billions of dollars to build the infrastructure for production and supply.

The gas discovery lies in waters 2,100 meters deep, said Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, with drilling extending another 1,400 meters under the seabed. “Our operations here are not complete. We’ll go another 1000 meters downhill … and data show that we’re likely to reach gas there as well. ”

Turkey has investigated hydrocarbons in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea – where its research actions in controversial water protests have drawn from Greece and Cyprus.

Erdogan said Turkey would speed up operations in the Mediterranean.