Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the discovery of what he defined as the largest-ever natural gas reserve of its history in the Black Sea.
The drilling vessel Fatih has discovered 320 billion cubic metres of natural gas reserve during its drilling in the Tuna-1 Zone.
“Realisation of the visions set out by countries is in proportionate to the stability in the energy industry,” President Erdoğan said. “There has been no turmoil, chaos, war, conflict or confrontation in the last century not caused one way or another by energy calculations. A brutal order has been established in which even millions of lives are at times disregarded for the control and security of oil and natural gas fields. This inhumane global order, which sees a drop of oil more valuable than a flood of blood, still prevails.”
All the necessary testing, analysis and engineering works have been completed at the Tuna-1 now renamed the Sakarya Gas Field. The data, obtained from the field, indicate that new natural gas discoveries in the same area are highly likely.
“I believe we as a country, which has suffered from external dependency in energy for years, will now look to the future in a more confident manner,” Mr Erdoğan underlined. “We aim to put the Black Sea gas to the use of our nation by 2023.”
This discovery comes at a time of tensions between Turkey and Greece concerning oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has already expressed his concerns, stressing that dialogue and de-escalation are in the best interest of the region. He recalled that Turkey and Greece have been committed NATO Allies for decades, working together with all other Allies to address common security challenges.
Underscoring that Turkey, while focusing on conventional energy resources, will also carry on with its investments in future technologies, electric engines, in particular, Mr Erdoğan said that Turkey will continue to march towards its goals without having its eyes on anyone’s rights or allowing anyone to encroach on its own rights.
“Those who stand against us on this issue, Greece in particular, know that we are right,” President Erdoğan stressed. “Particularly, the European Union should see that it is once again betraying its own principles and undermining the values, which keep the bloc on its feet, due to the double standard it displays by spoiling and unleashing Greece on us. No one should forget that the nonsense maps, which circulate around and have no validity, will sooner or later cause the biggest harm to the EU.”
