Alwaght- Turkey revised Monday its estimate of natural gas reserves in the Black Sea upward by nearly a third after a new field was located.
The total volume of gas Turkey has gradually discovered in the offshore fields now amounts to 710 billion cubic meters (bcm), President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, a find that is estimated to have a market value of $1 trillion.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan announced Turkey's first drillship Fatih had discovered a new reserve of 58 bcm in the Çaycuma-1 field, in addition to revising up an estimated volume in the Sakarya field to 652 bcm, from the previous 540 bcm.
“As a result of the analysis of the data, we have revised the previously declared 540 billion cubic meter reserve to 652 billion cubic meters,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey had drilled 13 wells in the Sakarya field.
“With our new discovery at Çaycuma-1, our gas reserve in the Black Sea has risen by 170 billion cubic meters to 710 billion cubic meters,” he said.
The ultimate goal, Erdogan said, is to declare energy independence from foreign oil and natural gas as soon as possible.
Turkey is almost completely dependent on imports to cover its energy needs, which leaves it particularly vulnerable to rising costs that skyrocketed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
