ISTANBUL—Turkey has identified a vast natural gas field in the Black Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, a discovery that could help the country ease its reliance on energy imports. The reservoir, appraised by a Turkish drilling ship in July, contains 320 billion cubic meters of gas, Mr. Erdogan said Friday, a volume equivalent to roughly seven times what Turkey imported in 2019. The president said authorities aimed to launch the offshore field into production in 2023, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. “We are determined to fundamentally resolve the energy issue,” Mr. Erdogan said in a televised speech from Istanbul, as a giant screen next to him broadcast live footage of the state-owned Fatih drilling ship. Bringing its gas to market in three years’ time sounds overly ambitious, they said.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 21, 2020 15:33 UTC