Turkey's Erdogan to announce new size of gas reserves on Oct. 17

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he will make a new announcement on the size of the gas reserves which the country discovered in the Black Sea when he visits a drill ship there at the weekend.

In August, Erdogan unveiled the discovery of a 320 billion cubic metre (11.3 trillion cubic feet) Black Sea field about 100 nautical miles north of the Turkish coast, saying it was part of even bigger reserves and could come on stream as soon as 2023.

If the gas can be commercially extracted, it could lessen Turkey's dependence on Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan for energy imports.

"On Saturday we will go to the Fatih drill ship and announce the new reserve amount," Erdogan said in a speech to his ruling AK Party lawmakers in parliament.

He also said another Turkish drill ship, Kanuni, had set off towards the Black Sea to begin operations there. It was not clear whether Kanuni would work in the same field as Fatih.

Any reduction in Turkey's energy import bill, which stood at $41 billion last year, would boost government finances and help ease a chronic current account deficit which has helped drive the lira to record lows against the dollar.