Erdogan announces new gas reserves find in Black Sea

The Turkish president on Friday announced the discovery of another 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea, following a historic find last year.

"Our Fatih drill ship has made a new natural gas discovery of 135 billion cubic meters in the Amasra-1 well in the Sakarya Gas Field," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the groundbreaking ceremony of Filyos Port and Natural Gas Operating Facility in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

Noting that Turkey's total natural gas discovery in Black Sea has reached 540 billion cubic meters, Erdogan said drilling activities in Amasra-1 well region is ongoing and "we expect new good news from this region."

The president also noted that they plan to bring natural gas from the sea to land in three stages.

The first stage includes the natural gas production systems to be established on the seabed, he said, adding that the second stage will see the launch of the facility that will process natural gas on land and make it ready for use.

"The third stage is the pipeline that will provide the connection between the system at sea and the facility on land," he noted.

Turkey's first national drillship Fatih discovered 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas last year in the country’s largest discovery ever in its history and the biggest offshore gas discovery worldwide in 2020 at the Tuna-1 well located about 170 kilometers off Turkey's Zonguldak coast.

Fatih drilled Turkali-1 and Turkali-2 testing wells after the big discovery along with the Amasra-1 well.

The first gas production from Sakarya Gas Field is planned for 2023.

Around 155 kilometers (96 miles) of the pipeline will be built from underneath the sea to Filyos onshore in Zonguldak, a port city in the Black Sea.

As an import-dependent country, Turkey imported 48 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year with a growth of 6.5% compared to the previous year.

Turkey's natural gas production stood at 441 million cubic meters in 2020, according to Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority data showed.