President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey had made a historic black sea fuel discovery, which would still drive the controversial 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 peak cost at a time when the local currency is weakening and the economy is more fragile due to coronavirus.
Erdogan said the discovery in the depths of the sea of 320 billion cubic meters was made at a site that the Turkish Fatih shipment began to explore last month.
He added that he hoped the first fuel would succeed among Turkish consumers in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the fashion republic.
“Turkey has made the greatest discovery of herbal fuel in its history in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said with great joy in a speech at the Dolmabahcae Palace in Istanbul.
“My Lord has opened the door to us with riches, ” he rejoiced.
The Fatih, Turkey’s first drilling ship, is named after Fatih Sultan Mehmet, the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, in 1453.
The shipment made the discovery in the Tuna-1 box off the coast of the town of Eregli in the northern province of Zonguldak after starting the search on July 20, Erdogan said.
The Turkish lira won an opposite price to the dollar following Erdogan’s promise Wednesday to report “good news” on Friday, but fell after the discovery duration less than the part that was noticed in the initial reports.
Analysts were also reluctant to overestimate the importance of discovery, noting that offshore drilling is time and time related.
“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.
A Turkish Navy army patrolling alongside Turkish drilling sends ‘Fatih’ that made the main fuel discovery in the Mediterranean.Photo: TURC DEFENSE MINISTERY / DEFENSE MINISTER’S PRESS
Hady added that “strengthening Turkey’s external position may be temporary.”
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, tweeted that the discovery “is not bad at all (but) is also not a replacement for the game.”
The volume of fuel advertised through Erdogan would cover Turkey’s overall herbal fuel wishes for six years at existing consumption rates.
Turkey’s finance minister and Erdogan’s father-in-law, Berat Albayrak, speaking aboard Fatih, said discovery and possible long-term discoveries may be just balancing imports of Turkey’s heavy industry by reducing its main energy import bill.
Turkey’s energy import bills 2% of last year’s overall economic output, according to Capital Economics, with maximum purchases 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).
This month, Erdogan ordered the resumption of debatable energy exploration on the south 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 exacerbated tensions with France, which has a greater military presence in the region.
But Erdogan has shown no sign 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 roll-out until the end of the year of the (drilling vessel) Kanuni, which is in maintenance lately,” he said.
“God willing, we’re waiting for news,” Erdogan added.
Turkey sent the seismic vessel Oruc Reis with warships to the region on 10 August, provoking the wrath of Greece, which said the resolution threatened peace.