Professor Doctor Sadettin Korkmaz stated that the discovery of natural gas reserve in Black Sea is a great improvement for Turkey and reminded that 5 spots in Black Sea were drilled deeper than 5 thousand meters previously; yet, these reserves were either dry or had marks of natural gas. He emphasized that Fatih Drill Ship drilled 8 spots in Mediterranean and found natural gas reserve in it’s first drill at Black Sea. Korkmaz said:
‘’The natural gas reserve is found at Eregli offshore and nearly in the middle of the Black Sea; the fact that the natural gas is located there, will constitute a basis and accelerate the future studies. I also believe that this discovery will accelerate the petrol explorations.’’
‘’We have to find our energy resources.’’
Korkmaz reminded that averagely 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas is consumed in Turkey annually and this 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserve will compensate the 6 years of natural gas need of the Turkey. He said:
‘’ I hope that this natural gas reserve will be much more improved with the future studies. The annual energy cost of Turkey is approximately valued at 40-45 billion dollars. Nearly 95 percent of our petrol is imported and the remaining 5 percent is produced from our resources. Almost 98 percent of our natural gas is imported. Natural gas covers 13 billion dollars of the annual energy cost in Turkey; hence, the discovery of a natural gas in our country means 13 billion dollars of overdraft. Unfortunately, Turkey is foreign-dependent by 90 percent when it comes to energy; we have to find our resources in order to decrease this dependency.’’
Korkmaz emphasized that many reserve researches are made on the land in Turkey and said:
‘’ Black Sea has a vast space and so has Mediterranean. We need to search these areas and find our energy resources. Our available ships are capable of these researches. We have two seismic ships and three deep sea drilling ships and I think that the fourth ship would be unnecessary. These three ships are capable of great tasks and also the fact that these are our own ships means we can do drilling whenever and wherever we want. We did not have any ships, we rented the ships from abroad and they made appointments in order in the past. You do not have to wait when you have your own ships and you can do drillings as fast as you want. ‘’
source: AA / translated by Bazaar Team