ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey had made a historic discovery of fuel in the Black Sea, which would still boost debatable exploration in the Mediterranean facing Greece and the EU.
Turkey hopes the discovery can get rid of imported energy, adding from Russia, which has a maximum cost at a time when the local currency is weakening and the economy is more fragile due to the coronavirus.
Erdogan said the discovery in the depths of the sea of 320 billion cubic meters was made in a place that Turkish shipment Fatih had begun to explore last month.
He added that he hoped that the first fuel would succeed among Turkish consumers in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the fashionable republic.
“Turkey has made the largest herbal fuel discovery in its history in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said in a very lighthearted speech at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.
“My Lord has opened the door for us with riches,” he rejoiced.
The Fatih, Turkey’s first drillship, is named after Fatih Sultan Mehmet, the Ottoman Sultan who conquered Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, in 1453.
The shipment made the discovery at the Tuna-1 box off the coast of the city of Eregli, in the northern province of Zonguldak, after starting the search on July 20, Erdogan said.
The Turkish lira gained in price opposite the dollar after Erdogan’s promise on Wednesday to report “good news” on Friday, but fell after the duration of the discovery less than the part that was warned in the initial reports.
Analysts were also reluctant to overestimate the importance of discovery, noting that offshore drilling is related to time and time.
“There are reasons to be cautious,” said Jason Tuvey, senior market economist at Capital Economics.
“On the one hand, it will take time for the infrastructure to be in position before fuel can be extracted,” he said in a study note.
Tuvey added that “strengthening Turkey’s external position may be temporary.”
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, tweeted that the discovery “isn’t bad at all (but) it’s not a replacement for the game either.”
The volume of fuel announced through Erdogan would cover Turkey’s overall herbal fuel desires for six years at existing consumption rates.
Turkey’s finance minister and Erdogan son-in-law Berat Albayrak, speaking aboard Fatih, said discovery and possible long-term discoveries can simply balance Turkey’s heavy import industry by reducing its import bill.import of higher energy.
Turkey’s energy import bills 2% of last year’s overall economic output, according to Capital Economics, with maximum purchases coming from Russia, Iran and Iraq.
Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority said in January that the country’s annual energy charge imports between $12 billion and $13 billion (10.2 to 11.1 billion euros).
Earlier this month, Erdogan ordered the resumption of debatable energy exploration off the southern coast near a Greek island in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean.
The factor has put Turkey on a collision course with Greece, Cyprus and the European Union, and has exacerbated tensions with France, which has a greater military presence in the region.
But Erdogan has shown no signs of giving in to the EU’s repeated call to finish studies in the eastern Mediterranean.
“We will boost our activities in the Mediterranean with the deployment until the end of the year of the (drillship) Kanuni, which is currently under maintenance,” he said.
“God willing, we’re waiting for smart news,” Erdogan added.
Turkey sent the seismic ship Oruc Reis with warships to the region on 10 August, provoking the wrath of Greece, which said the resolution threatened peace.