Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, quoted by the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, said that gas reserves in the Black Sea will cover world needs for 45 years, Lenta.ru reports.
According to the politician, who is now deputy head of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, “the Black Sea natural gas reserves are now estimated at 540 billion cubic meters.”
As Yildirim noted, “this is only the beginning, there will be a continuation.”
And the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Fatih Donmez, in an interview with Kriter, said that Ankara intends to start exploiting this field in early 2023 and increase daily production to 40 million cubic meters.
In 2020, Turkish authorities reported the discovery of large gas reserves in the Black Sea. The reserves of the Sakarya field are estimated at more than 400 billion cubic meters.
In April, by a decree of Turkish President Erdogan, the field was included in the scope of project state assistance. The country plans to invest almost $10 billion in the extraction and transportation of gas in the Black Sea.