Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Turkish President Recep Erdogan said that a huge gas field with reserves of 320 billion cubic meters was discovered on the country’s continental shelf in the Black Sea. It was noted that within 3 years the government will provide supplies to Turkish consumers.

Today Turkey uses about 45 billion cubic meters of gas per year and covers the needs entirely through imports.

Experts, commenting on the above fact, as well as the promise of the Turkish government to start selling gas on the domestic market in 2023, draw attention to the following.

1. The intention of the Turkish government to bring the field into operation within three years sounds extremely ambitious. The period from the discovery of a gas field to the start of commercial production takes 10-12 years on average.

2. Development of its own reserves, as a rule, allows the country to reduce the cost of gas for domestic consumers, and also has a positive effect on the foreign trade balance and the stability of the national currency.

According to experts, the field is really very large in terms of reserves and can help Turkey significantly reduce the volume of gas imports. Ankara spent about 35 billion euros on this last year. It is expected that the natural gas field on the Black Sea shelf will reduce the country’s annual expenses for purchasing gas from abroad by US$12 billion.

The opening is important from the point of view of: a) ensuring the energy security of Turkey; b) the state of affairs in the financial and budgetary sphere, in particular, in overcoming the chronic budget deficit of the country.

This fact will seriously affect the state of Turkey’s energy policy in the region and will lead to a revision of priorities in this area. In particular, taking into account Ankara’s intentions to export gas in the future, this will intensify competition in the European gas market.

In general, against the background of growing economic problems in Turkey, the discovery of a gas field is a good potential help for the ruling party to strengthen its position in the country. In the foreign policy sphere, this gives Erdogan additional leverage to reach possible compromises in degrading ties with Greece, and after it with the EU in the dispute over gas in the Mediterranean.