Turkey discovers new natural gas reserve in Black Sea

ANKARA: Turkey has discovered a new natural gas reserve in the Black Sea that will meet its residential energy needs for more than three years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

“We have discovered 75 billion cubic meters (2,650 cubic feet) of new natural gas. With this amount, we will meet the needs of our homes alone for about 3.5 years,” he said.

Erdogan valued the reserve as worth some $30 billion.

“Our work at the Goktepe-3 well, which started on March 27 with our seventh-generation drilling ship Abdulhamid Han, was completed yesterday,” he said.

Turkey is still highly dependent on imports to cover its energy needs, though Erdogan stressed Ankara’s desire to achieve energy independence.

“We will continue on our path without stopping, without resting, and without paying heed to criticism or obstacles until we reach our goal of a fully energy-independent Turkey,” he said.

EU to propose end-2027 halt to all Russian gas imports

Separately, Russia on Friday (April 4) put the cost of a massive Black Sea oil spill in December from two tankers at almost $1 billion, which it is attempting to claim back from the ships’ owners.

The head of Russia’s environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Radionova, told a government meeting on the clean-up that the “total sum presented to the polluting companies is 84.9 billion rubles ($998 million)”.

The ships’ owners have a month to pay up voluntarily or face court action, she said, according to a statement released by the government.