Turkey discovers new gas reserves in Black Sea

Hydrocarbon-poor Turkey says it has found a new natural gas reserve of 75 billion cubic metres in the Black Sea.

The reserve was found in the Goktepe-3 well at a depth of 3,500 metres and has an economic value of around $30 billion, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We will be able to meet the residential demand alone for approximately 3.5 years,” Erdogan said in a post on social messaging platform X. He said Ankara is committed to energy independence.

In March state-backed Turkish Petroleum Corporation and US energy companies Continental Resources and TransAtlantic Petroleum agreed to develop unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the Diyarbakir Basin in the east of Turkey.

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Energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said that Ankara plans to drill 153 oil exploration wells in 2025, mainly in the country’s Gabar region in the southeast, Diyarbakır and near the Turkey-Syria border.

Ankara’s daily oil production reached 132,000 barrels as of March 2025, the minister said. Turkey has also been exploring for hydrocarbons offshore Somalia and is negotiating to explore prospects off Libya.