Turkey has raised the estimated reserves in a gas field off its Black Sea coast to 405 billion cubic metres after finding an additional 85 billion cubic metres, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan said in August the field contained 320 billion cubic metres of gas, making it Turkey’s biggest natural gas discovery.
“Work in this borehole has been completed after reaching a depth of 4,775 metres as planned previously,” Erdogan said, speaking on board the Fatih on Saturday.
He said the vessel would start new operations in a different borehole in the same field, called Sakarya, next month after returning to port for maintenance. Another ship, called Kanuni, is also headed to the Black Sea for drilling operations, he said.
If the gas can be commercially extracted, the discovery could transform Turkey’s dependence on Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan for energy imports. Last year’s imports totalled more than $41bn.
Analysts have urged caution over the discovery’s significance, pointing out that deep-sea drilling is expensive and takes time.
Turkey expects the first gas flow from the field in 2023. One source close to the matter said an annual gas flow of 15 bcm was envisaged from 2025.