Turkey plans to deploy a second drilling ship in the Black Sea early next year following the biggest-ever natural-gas discovery there.
The vessel, named Kanuni, will join another ship seeking further oil and gas fields, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said in an interview with the state news agency Anadolu.
In August, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and said production could start in 2023. The ship that made that discovery, the Fatih, is still exploring in the Sakarya field in the Black Sea.
Turkey bought three drilling ships in recent years as it expanded energy exploration in the Black Sea and contested waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Kanuni, which is currently located at Mersin port in Mediterranean sea for maintenance, was built in 2012 in South Korea and operated by Petrobras before.
