Turkey has found massive reserve of natural gas in Black Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday.
Addressing a special ceremony from Dolmabahche Palace Istanbul, Erdogan said: “Our drilling machine Fatih started exploration on July 20 and found the huge gas reserves after 9 deep holes.”
“The gas reserves are as big as 320 billion cubic meters,” he added.
Erdogan said his government has a target to serve the gas discovered in Turkey’s territorial Black Sea waters by 2023.
“We are expecting similar discoveries in the Mediterranean Sea,” Turkey’s president said. “We are decisive in solving Turkey’s energy problems at the root source.”
Erdogan had on Wednesday created buzz in market when he told meeting of Justice and Development (AK) Party mayors that he has “good news” for the country. But, he added, “I will reveal it on Friday.”
Local and social media spaces were abuzz for past two days about the “good news”.
Discovery of natural gas reserves is a boon for energy deficient Turkey which fulfills the energy needs for about 30 t0 50 billion dollars annually.
