Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday confirmed the discovery of natural gas deposits in its Black Sea territorial waters in a televised address.
Erdoğan added that Turkey would accelerate its hunt for reserves in the Mediterranean as soon as a separate shipping vessel, the Kanuni, finishes maintenance and becomes operational by the end of this year.
The EU has called on Turkey to cease exploration in areas of the East Mediterranean also claimed by Greece and Cyprus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that the issue would be addressed at the September European Council meeting of EU leaders.
The new Black Sea find is estimated at 320 billion cubic meters, and was found while drilling at a depth of 500 meters — but Turkey plans to drill another 1,000 meters deeper, citing seismic data showing additional reserves.
The country has set a target to make the gas available for use by 2023 to coincide with the centenary of the Republic of Turkey, Erdoğan said.
The discovery was made about a month after the Fatih vessel began exploratory drilling July 20 in a 250 square kilometer area known as the Tuna-1 zone, now renamed the Sakarya gas reserve, officials said.
Minister of Finance and Treasury Berat Albayrak, formerly the country’s energy minister, said during the televised address that the discovery could take Turkey from being a deficit-plagued energy importer to an exporter having annual budget surpluses.
The country spends nearly $40 billion each year on energy imports, Albayrak added.