Turkey has discovered a large gas field in the Black Sea. According to President Erdogan, this involves an amount of 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which will make the country less dependent on gas imports from Iran, Iraq and Russia.
“Turkey has made the largest natural gas discovery in its history,” said Erdogan. “We are committed to solving our energy issue and will not stop until we become a net energy exporter.”
Independent experts call it a significant find, but not big enough to turn Turkey into an energy exporter or solve the country’s financial problems. The Turkish lira has fallen to a low this month, fueled by high inflation and a large current account deficit. After the announcement of the gas discovery, the currency recovered somewhat.
Accumulated tensions
While the find is significant, it is smaller than other discoveries in the nearby Eastern Mediterranean. It is only one third of Egypt’s Zohr field, one of the largest in the Mediterranean, which contains an estimated 850 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Turkey expects to be able to use the gas field in 2023, the year in which the republic of Turkey celebrates its centenary, but experts are skeptical about this too. According to them, it could take up to ten years before the gas can be used.
The find comes at a time when tensions between Turkey and Greece are running high as Turkey searches for natural gas in the Mediterranean. Greece, backed by the rest of the EU, says the part of the sea where the Turks are conducting research belongs to Greek Cyprus and wants Turkey to retrieve the research vessel, but Ankara refuses.
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