Turkey's discovery of a natural gas field in the Black sea may help cooperation between Ankara and Moscow. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday on the NTV channel by Turkish Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak.
"This discovery [of a new gas field in the Black sea] will allow us to get natural gas at a cheaper price from abroad. Russia is our reliable supplier, and we are talking about cooperation [with it]," Albayrak stressed. "We will produce gas at a lower cost, and this will affect both our people (gas prices on the domestic market-ed.) and the discount [on gas supplied to Turkey]."
In addition, the new gas field, according to the Minister, will favorably affect the image of a number of Turkish companies. "This process will bring TPAO (Turkish Petroleum Corporation -ed.) and BOTAS (Petroleum Pipeline Corporation - ed.) to another league. With this opening, they will be able to enter the IPO (initial public offering procedure-approx.)," Albayrak added.
On August 21, President Tayyip Erdogan officially announced that Turkey had discovered large reserves of natural gas in the Black sea. By 2023, the authorities expect to start supplying it to the domestic market. According to Erdogan, the volume of the field is 320 billion cubic meters. In the near future, the President noted, the authorities would resolve technical issues related to gas production from this field, and "immediately begin drilling." Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez reported that the discovered gas reserves in the Black sea were estimated at 65 billion dollars.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS