The latest in the world Learn about the most important and largest ship that will join the Turkish exploration fleet

With a seventh generation drilling and exploration ship, the most modern in the world, Turkey is preparing to wade through the seas in order to discover more natural energy sources in the depths of its waters within the borders of its blue homeland.

In addition to the three drilling and exploration ships that made Turkey an important player in the search for natural energy sources in the depths of water, especially the eastern Mediterranean, amid a highly charged atmosphere, Turkey is now preparing to strengthen its fleet of research and exploration ships by adding a new seventh-generation ship, It is the latest in the world.

Within its strategic plans, which began to bear fruit in recent years through the discovery of new sources of natural gas at the bottom of the Black Sea, Turkey succeeded in building an integrated national fleet of research and exploration ships that are completely under its management, and dispensed with its need for international companies specialized in this type of business.

Today, Turkey has within its fleet five of the most modern ships in the world, two ships that carry out search and combing work and 3 ships for drilling and exploration operations, in addition to the new exploration ship of the seventh generation and the ship "Ertugrul" specialized in storing and gasifying liquefied gas, all of which are enlisted in order to reveal sources New natural energy within the waters of the blue homeland of Turkey, starting from the Black Sea, passing through the Marmara and Aegean seas, all the way to the conflict areas in the eastern Mediterranean.

The newest ship in the world

The Turkish National Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) spent the whole of last year searching for a fourth drilling ship to be included in its fleet of drilling vessels consisting of Fatih, Qanoon and Yavuz vessels, which was recently crowned with success after signing an agreement with the South Korean company (Daewoo).

Following the purchase agreement, the seventh-generation drillship "West Cobalt" is sailing towards the Black Sea, waiting to be renamed after its predecessors.

The new ship has more advanced technology than the sixth generation ships, which have a deep-sea drilling capacity under extremely high pressure at a depth of 12,000 meters, as the seventh generation ships are expected to increase this capacity and contribute to reaching much deeper depths.

Turkish fleet of research and exploration ships

In addition to the new seventh-generation drillship, Turkey has three sixth-generation drillships in its fleet of drill ships, Fatih, Qanuni and Yavuz. All three drill ships are capable of drilling in extremely deep waters, where the ships can conduct offshore drilling operations at high pressure more than 12,000 meters deeper than the Mariana Trench, the deepest sea trench in the world.

In addition to the three drilling ships, the Turkish fleet contains two other ships, Hayreddin Barbarossa and Aruch Rais, which are specialized in research, combing and seismic studies.

And last June, Turkey inaugurated the Ertugrul Ghazi ship, the first Turkish ship specialized in storing and gasifying gas, as well as transferring it to the natural gas pipeline system when needed. "Ertugrul Ghazi" is one of the ships with the highest carrying capacity in the world, with a daily gasification capacity of 28 million cubic meters.

Successive discoveries

Since last year, news has been emerging about new gas discoveries at the bottom of the Black Sea, the latest of which was announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last June about the discovery of an additional 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas off the coast of the country in the Black Sea, becoming Thus, the total gas reserves discovered in the Black Sea region are about 540 billion cubic meters, with a total value of about 120 billion Turkish liras.

He relies on these and other discoveries, in order to reduce the value of the high energy bill that burdens the Turkish economy and causes an imbalance in its trade balance, especially since Turkey needs to import more than 90% of its energy needs from abroad at an annual rate of about 40 billion dollars, which It is the main reason for the trade balance deficit witnessed by the Turkish economy, despite the arrival of Turkish exports to more than 200 billion dollars this year.

These successive discoveries would create a new economic, geopolitical and strategic reality, enabling Turkey to move to an important stage at the regional and international levels, and give the Turkish decision-maker the ability to maneuver with both Russia and Iran in many regional files intertwined with Turkish national security, especially After reducing dependence on them for the supply of gas, and compensating for their needs from friendly countries that have strong strategic relations with Ankara, such as Azerbaijan, Algeria and Qatar.