BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 24. Türkiye intends to expand oil and gas exploration areas at the expense of the southeastern shelf of the Black Sea, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez said, Trend reports.
"We will conduct exploratory drilling both on the shelf of Ordu city and on the shelf of Rize city by the end of 2023. We expect to find natural gas in Ordu and oil in Rize," Donmez said.
Both cities are located in the north-east of Türkiye on the Black Sea coast.
Donmez said that the oil found in the south-east of Türkiye is of high quality.
"The oil from the Esma-Cevik field is of extremely high quality and similar to Brent. Our production there amounted to 80,000 barrels per day, and we increased it to 100,000 last year," he said.
According to him, it is planned to open dozens more wells and bring the total oil production to 200,000 barrels per day in the future, which will cover 22 percent of domestic consumption.
However, Donmez said that drilling in mountainous regions is difficult and requires the preparation of complex and expensive infrastructure.
He also added that it was decided to name the Turkish oil as Turkish Delight after the well-known brand of Turkish locum.