A giant drilling platform, which will be used to explore oil and natural gas in the Black Sea, reached the northern coastal Sinop province of Turkey on Saturday, Xinhua reported according to semi-official Anatolia news agency.
The Norwegian platform named "Leiv Eiriksson," which will be used in the ultra-deep drilling activities to be jointly carried out by Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) and Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, anchored near Sinop port, according to the report.
Sinop governor Hakan Guvencer was quoted as saying that the massive platform had finally arrived in Sinop and the 120-meter tower of the platform, which had been cut off during its voyage under the bridges of Bosporus, would be re-assembled at the port.
The platform would start operating in February, Guvencer said.
In April 2009, state-owned petroleum companies, Turkey's TPAO and Brazil's Petrobras, signed an agreement for the exploration of oil in the Black Sea.
The deep-water platform "Leiv Eiriksson," which set off from Norway months ago, will drill in water down to 6,000 meters with a daily cost of up to 1 million U.S. dollars and the platform will stay in the Black Sea for five years.
Recent seismic researches estimate a 10-billion barrel oil reserve in the Black Sea.