Turkey makes Black Sea gas find

Turkey has made what could be a commercial-scale gas discovery in the Black Sea, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The find — in what has been dubbed the Tuna-1 field — is about 170km offshore, near Romania's Neptun field. The field could contain around 800bn m³ of gas, but it is unclear how much would be economically feasible to extract. The Neptun field is estimated to hold 42bn-84bn m³, with potential offtake of 6.3bn m³/yr.

The discovery was made using the survey vessel Fatih, which sailed from Zonguldak in late July, tracking data show.

Turkish gas consumption totalled 45.3bn m³ last year, down from 49.2bn m³ in 2018. Gas imports — pipeline deliveries from Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as LNG cargoes — meet around 99pc of the country's gas demand.

By Bilal Muftuoglu