President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the discovery of an additional 58 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in the Black Sea on December 26.
"Our Fatih drilling vessel has discovered 58 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, 3,023 meters below sea level at Çaycuma 1 block," announced President Erdoğan.
In addition to the new discovery of 58 bcm, the natural gas reserve in the Black Sea was upgraded to 652 billion cubic meters from an earlier figure of 540 bcm. Türkiye's natural gas discovery in the Black Sea has reached 710 bcm with a market value of USD 1 trillion, President Erdoğan added.
Stressing that Türkiye will open more exploratory wells in the Black Sea, President Erdoğan added, “Our domestic gas will substantially contribute to our goal of becoming an energy hub – a goal towards which we have recently made significant progress. We are committed to making Türkiye the energy hub of the Caspian, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East."
Additionally, President Erdoğan addressed at the inauguration ceremony for the Silivri Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility's (SUNGSF) capacity expansion project, which will make it Europe's largest underground gas storage facility on December 16.
President Erdoğan unveiled that SUNGSF's total capacity has been expanded to 4.6 bcm, adding “The latest expansion work involved 31,000-meter marine drilling in 18 wells with platforms 3 kilometers offshore. These works were conducted at a similar pace to the drilling operations in the Black Sea. All of the equipment used in these works was manufactured indigenously, contributing to Türkiye's know-how of gas storage facility technology. SUNGSF has a recycling capacity of 75 million cubic meters and an injection capacity of 45 cubic meters per day."