Turkey's budget deficit to be healed by fall in oil prices

If oil prices continue to decrease over the next year, Turkey's budget deficit will fall by 10 percent, said Turkish energy minister on Monday.

"After Turkey's oil and gas exploration in Thrace and south eastern regions in the past 12 years with a $7.5 billion investment, we are hopeful for the future," Taner Yıldız said during questions on a private TV channel.

He also underlined that Turkey has enough domestic oil resources to meet 15 percent of its consumption, but upon questioning on a natural gas shortage in the country during the winter, he remarked that this could be a possibility with the Ukraine crisis.

The energy minister also discussed shale gas exploration in Turkey, and said, "We aim to take serious steps in the next 10 years for shale gas exploration, and we encourage foreign investors."

Yıldız additionally confirmed that the government has no plans to privatize boron mining. Turkey has almost 72.8 percent of the world's known deposits of boron amounting to a total of 3.3 billion tons of reserves.