FILYOS /Turkey/, April 13. /TASS/. The Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea will enable Turkey to supply gas to the European market, Melih Khan Bilgin, General Manager of the Turkish Oil Company, said in an interview with TASS on Thursday.

"Including the first and second stages [of the project], we will pump 40 million cubic meters of gas into the national system [from the Sakarya field] daily. We will also have good potential for [supplying gas] to the European market. Under the current conditions on the [energy] market I don't think we will have problems finding clients in Europe," he said.

On March 29, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced that the ceremony of pumping the first gas to the gas processing plant in Filyos, Zonguldak province, is to take place on April 20, the last day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

According to the authorities, the reserves of gas fields on the Black Sea shelf are about 540 billion cubic meters. The largest of them is Sakarya (more than 400 billion cubic meters). At the initial stage, this field is expected to produce about 10 million cubic meters of gas per day, or from 3.4 billion to 4 billion per year. By 2028, the volume of daily production should be 40 million cubic meters (15 billion cubic meters per year).

It was expected that the Black Sea gas will begin to flow to consumers in Turkey in March. However, due to the earthquakes on February 6, which caused significant damage, the authorities were forced to reconsider these plans.