Turkey believes that this new find will be able to sustain the country for the next 20 years; President Erdogan vowed to announce this news on Friday, assuring people that this will usher Turkey into a ‘new era.’
There has been significant speculation over the last week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to give an important announcement on Friday that he said would “usher Turkey into a new era.” Late in the week, Erdogan announced that his researchers have found approximately 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea.
The Turks hope to begin production by 2023 in order to make use of what is recorded as the biggest find ever in the Black Sea. Erdogan further praised his team stating, “We have conducted this operation completely through national means. We didn’t even rely one bit on foreign sources in drilling operations.” The vessel responsible for the find is the Fatih drillship.
While Erdogan is boasting of his country’s recent find, a senior analyst from a Czech investment bank, Jonathan Lamb, proposed an important perspective, responding, “The question now is how much of this gas is recoverable. This is not clear yet. What the market really wants to know also is how much they can produce per year, but I don’t think they are in the position to say that yet.”
Turkey is hopeful that this find will provide for their country for the next 20 plus years. And with the Turkish economy on a downward spiral and the Turkish Lira trending at one of its lowest values ever, this find may be the boost they’ve been waiting for. However, several analysts are cautioning that it could be several years and billions of dollars in investments before production can begin.