Türkiye to provide nearly 30% of annual natural gas from Black Sea reserves

Türkiye will meet approximately 30 percent of its annual natural gas needs from Black Sea reserves when it reaches full capacity, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of Black Sea natural gas in Zonguldak on Thursday, Erdogan said Türkiye is "taking a historic step towards energy independence."

"When we reach full capacity, we will be able to meet about 30 percent of our country's yearly need from these reserves," the Turkish president said, adding that it took less than three years for Türkiye to offer the discovered gas to users.

"We will extract 10 million cubic meters of gas per day from the Sakarya field in the first place and 40 million cubic meters per day in the future through the new gas wells that we will drill," he added.

Erdogan further said the Black Sea natural gas will not only "significantly reduce our country's dependence on foreign natural gas, but also make Filyos and Zonguldak an important energy hub."

READ MORE: Five things to know about Sakarya, Türkiye’s biggest offshore gas field

Largest gas discovery

In August 2020, 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas were discovered in the Tuna-1 well in the Black Sea, making it the country's largest gas discovery in history.

With an additional 85 billion cubic meters discovered in October 2020, the total quantity of discovered gas reserves was 405 billion cubic meters.

Following the discovery of 135 billion cubic meters in the Amasra-1 well in June 2021, the Black Sea gas reserves totalled 540 billion cubic meters.

A further 58 billion cubic meters of gas were found in December 2022 in the Caycuma-1 well in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.

An independent evaluation found that the country's total gas reserves would reach 710 billion cubic meters by the end of 2022, with a market value in the region of $1 trillion.

READ MORE: Erdogan: Türkiye to use Black Sea gas hopefully next year