The discovery of a huge reserve of 58 billion cubic metres of natural gas under the Black Sea can promote Turkiye to a big player in the gas market.
On Monday, December 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of new natural gas reserves in the area of Caykum-1 in the Black Sea. They are estimated at a massive 58 billion cubic metres he detailed.
In 2020 Turkiye made the discovery of a huge deepwater gas field some 170km off its shores in the Black Sea. Last year, it estimated the total reserves in this area at 540,000 cubic metres.This latest discovery has boosted his country’s gas reserves to a total of 710 billion cubic metres, an increase of 170 billion cubic metres he pointed out.
“The natural gas we discovered in the Black Sea is now valued at $1 trillion on the international market. We are determined to make Turkiye the energy centre of the Caspian, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Our private and state daily oil production in the country has now reached 80,000 barrels. Next year we aim to increase production to 100 thousand barrels”, said Erdogan, as reported by news.am.
Since 2007, Turkiye– which consumes about 60 billion cubic metres of gas annually – has been exploiting gas fields close to its coasts in the Black Sea. These are minor deposits, hardly sufficient to reduce the country’s dependence on imports from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.
Posting on his official Twitter profile on Monday, Erdogan wrote: “Our natural gas reserves in the Black Sea increased by 170 billion cubic metres and reached a total of 710 billion cubic metres, with the revaluation studies and the new 58 billion cubic metres discovery of our Fatih Drilling Ship in Caycuma-1. Good luck to our country and our nation”.
“Our ultimate goal is to declare Turkiye’s energy independence by completely breaking our dependence on foreign oil and natural gas as soon as possible. We are responsible for working, producing, and striving. Appreciation is from Allah”, he wrote in a second post.
He added: “Hopefully, in the coming period, we will drill more exploration wells in the Black Sea region. We will not be satisfied with this, we will also focus on our exploration activities in the Mediterranean”.
He assured on Sunday, December 25, that gas supplies from the new deep-water fields will reach Turkish homes early in the first quarter of 2023.