ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2020) The approximate value of the large gas reserve in the Black Sea which Turkey said it discovered earlier in the day is $65 billion, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Friday.
As announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Friday, the country's Faith drilling ship found a natural gas field in the Black Sea with an estimated 320 billion cubic meters of reserves.
"The approximate value is $65 billion. We will be conducting the seismological exploration and drilling on our own," Donmez told Turkey's TRT broadcaster.
According to the minster, Turkish state oil company TPAO was contracted to conduct the drilling, while the construction of a pipe for the transit of fuel onshore might end up tendered internationally.
Fatih used to be one of Turkey's drilling vessels in the Mediterranean in the areas which Greece and Cyprus claim as their exclusive economic zones. The persistent drilling has soured Ankara's relations both with Athens and Nicosia and the European Union.
