Turkey's Erdogan announces discovery of large natural gas reserve off its Black Sea coast

According to Euronews, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the discovery of a large natural gas reserves off the Black Sea coast, days after he promised “good news” that would usher in a “new era” for the energy dependent country.

Erdogan said Friday that the amount of gas discovered is 320 billion cubic meters, adding that he hopes to start extracting and using the gas by 2023.

If confirmed as recoverable resources, the reserves could ease the country’s dependence on costly energy imports and could ease the financial market jitters that have seen the country’s currency plummet to record lows this summer.

The Turkish drilling ship, Fatih, had been carrying out exploration operations in the Tuna-1 sector in the western Black Sea for the past month. The sector is near where Romania has also found gas reserves.

"We have carried out nine deep-sea drillings in the Mediterranean and Black Sea through our Fatih and Yavuz ships so far. We have had the honour of giving our nation the good news that it has been waiting for."

"There is no stopping and resting until we become a net exporter in energy," he added.

Euronews reported on Wednesday that Turkey was poised to announce the discovery of a new gas field, but a source reported the likely location was the Eastern Mediterranean, where prospective drilling has led to conflict with the EU.

The discovery comes as tensions between NATO allies Turkey and Greece are running high over oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek and Turkish warships have been shadowing each other after Turkey sent a research ship to look for potential undersea oil and gas deposits. The Turkish ship is scheduled to search for energy reserves there until Aug. 23.

The discovery of the natural gas reserve would come as a welcome respite for the country which is dependent on Iran, Iraq and Russia for its energy and is grappling with economic woes. Last year, energy imports cost the country $41 billion-