A Turkish exploration ship has discovered a new natural gas field in the deep waters of the Black Sea, with reserves estimated at 75 billion cubic meters, which would cover the consumption of Turkish households for three and a half years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday, EFE reported.

“We have discovered a field of 75 billion cubic meters of gas. This amount is enough to cover the needs of our households for about 3.5 years, and the economic value is 30 billion dollars,” the Turkish leader added, according to Agerpres.

Erdogan said the discovery was made in the 3,500-meter-deep Goktepe-3 well, which is part of the Sakarya field complex in the Black Sea, discovered in 2020 and set to start production in 2023, according to Turkish public broadcaster TRT.

It is located about 180 kilometers northwest of the port of Filyos in Zonguldak province, which is served by a pipeline connecting the fields to land.

President Erdogan recalled that these fields currently produce 9.5 million cubic meters per day, but production is expected to double next year and quadruple in 2028.

Turkey consumes between 50,000 and 60,000 million cubic meters of gas annually, or almost 150 million cubic meters per day, most of which is imported from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Most Turkish households are connected to the public gas network for cooking and heating, but 19% of electricity production also depends on gas, after coal (35%) and before hydropower (21%), wind (10%) or solar power (7.5%).