Erdogan announces historic natural gas discovery in Black Sea

On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey had made a historic discovery of gas in the Black Sea.

If confirmed as a recoverable resource, the reserves could reduce the country's dependence on expensive energy imports and reduce the financial markets in this financial year, which recorded a decline in the country's currency this summer.

Erdogan said the amount of gas discovered was 320 billion cubic meters, adding that he hopes to extract and use gas by 2023.

"We have carried out this operation entirely through national sources," Erdogan said at a recent press conference at his office in Istanbul. "We also did not rely on foreign sources for drilling."

"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.

Turkey has bought three drilling ships in recent years as it dramatically increased its energy exploration in the Black Sea and competed with the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. It wants to find large-scale energy reserves to reduce its heavy reliance on imports from Iran, Iraq and Russia and to support the Middle East's largest economy.

The discovery comes amid rising tensions between NATO allies Turkey and Greece over disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek and Turkish warships are shadowing each other after Turkey sent a probe to explore potential oil and gas reserves. The Turkish ship will search for energy reserves there by August 23.

The Fatih, Turkey's first drilling vessel, is named after the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople - present-day Istanbul in 1453.

Turkey's finance minister and Erdogan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak, said the discovery and possible future exploration could reduce Turkey's import-heavy trade balance by lowering its high energy import bill.