Turkey discovers the largest natural gas field in its history

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of the largest natural gas field, which contains 320 billion cubic meters (11.3 trillion cubic feet) in the Black Sea.

According to Reuters, Erdogan said in a speech that was highly expected, transmitted by television from an Ottoman palace in Istanbul, Turkey, which has made the largest natural gas discovery in its history in the Black Sea. The floor was attached to the TV with a video clip of a drilling ship in the western Black Sea.

and if the gas is commercially extractable, the discovery could help Ankara reduce its current dependence on imports from countries such as Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, to meet a large quantity Of their energy needs.

The ship achieved detection about 100 nautical miles north of the Turkish coast.

He said this reserve is actually part of a much larger resource. God willing, more will come. As a country that has relied on abroad for gas for years, we are looking to the future in a safer way now ... We will not stop until we become a net energy source.

Analysts said it was unclear whether the 320 billion cubic meters that was announced referred to the total gas estimates or the quantities that could be extracted, but that in Both cases are a big revelation.

"This is the largest discovery for Turkey by a large margin and one of the largest discoveries in the world in 2020," said Thomas Purdy of Wood Mackenzie Consulting.

economic payment

Any reduction in the Turkish energy import bill, which amounted to 41 billion dollars last year, will boost the government's financial conditions and help ease the chronic deficit in the current account balance, which contributed to pushing the lira to record low levels against the dollar.

Minister of Finance Barat Albayrak said on board Fatih, "We will remove the current deficit in current transactions from our country's dictionary.

The lira has risen since Erdogan first informed energy executives on Wednesday that he would announce good news. But it decreased as he announced the details of the disclosure and was down 0.6 percent by 1500 GMT.

Officials and analysts have warned that starting production from any gas detection in the Black Sea could take up to ten years, and it would require investing billions of dollars to build infrastructure for production and supplies. .