Turkey's Black Sea gas find reaches 405 billion cubic meters

“We will continue our search for hydrocarbon resources in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean,” Erdogan said. Turkey pulled the vessel to shore last month for maintenance and resupply, saying the move would give diplomacy a chance, but the military and diplomatic spat continues. Erdogan warned that Turkey would use diplomacy and “all its might” to defend the energy rights for Turkey and Turkish Cypriots.


PTI | Istanbul | Updated: 17-10-2020 20:22 IST | Created: 17-10-2020 20:15 IST
Turkey's Black Sea gas find reaches 405 billion cubic meters
Turkey has increased its maritime search for hydrocarbon resources, with several drillships in waters near the country. Image Credit: Twitter(@PIB_India)
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Turkey's president has announced the discovery of an additional 85 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the Black Sea. Speaking aboard the drillship Fatih on Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said explorations in the Tuna-1 well were complete after reaching a depth of 4775 meters (5,222 yards).

In August, Turkey announced the discovery 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves off the Black Sea coast, which energy analysts considered notable but not large enough to turn Turkey into a regional energy hub. Ankara says it plans to extract and use the gas by 2023, hoping to eventually decrease its dependence on energy imports. Last year's imports totalled more than USD 41 billion.

Turkey has increased its maritime search for hydrocarbon resources, with several drillships in waters near the country. Its vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean have been at the heart of a dispute with neighbouring Greece over the delimitation of continental shelves. “We will continue our search for hydrocarbon resources in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean,” Erdogan said. This week, Turkey redeployed its survey ship, Oruc Reis, to disputed waters in an area among Greek islands, Cyprus and Turkey's southern coast. Turkey pulled the vessel to shore last month for maintenance and resupply, saying the move would give diplomacy a chance, but the military and diplomatic spat continues.

Erdogan warned that Turkey would use diplomacy and “all its might” to defend the energy rights for Turkey and Turkish Cypriots. He added that the Fatih drillship would return to drilling next month in the Turkali-1 well and would be joined in the Black Sea by the new Turkish vessel, Kanuni.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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