Nabucco and TAP gas pipelines could both be built one day -TAP

Reuters

Both of the projects vying to pipe Azeri gas to the European Union can be built but not yet, a senior official from one of them said on Wednesday.


Second pipeline could take another five-to-10 years
Decision on winning project expected by mid-2013



The governments of Albania, Greece and Italy on Wednesday signed an agreement, confirming their support for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), one of two projects in competition to reduce EU dependence on Russian energy.

"There will be 10 billion cubic metres of gas available from Shah Deniz phase II. In that context, there can't be two large-scale pipelines built at the same time," TAP External Affairs Director Michael Hoffmann told Reuters.

"But we can have two pipelines in a sequential situation. It will only be a matter of time before more gas comes on stream from Azerbaijan, though this may possibly take another five to 10 years."

TAP is proposing a route through Albania and Greece into Italy, while the rival Nabucco West project would ship gas along a different path from Turkey's western border into a hub in Austria from whence it could be distributed.

Heavily indebted nation Greece is particularly in need of the kind of investment an energy pipeline would bring and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras attended Wednesday's signing ceremony in Athens.

Natural Gas to Cyprus

Michael J. Economides      Energy Tribune
 
The news of the Cyprus Public Natural Gas Agency, DEFA’s recent decision to include only LNG strategies and exclude CNG technologies from further negotiations for the interim delivery of natural gas to that country is shocking, illogical to the extreme, almost insulting to the intelligence of the people. It becomes even more frustrating that all is secret and it is impossible to see the rationale. But no matter what, it is totally flawed.

LNG is the obvious means of large trans-national gas transport, but for Cyprus it was a bad idea ten years ago, it was worse three years ago and it is disastrous today, just four years before the country is expected to bring on line its own plentiful supply. The situation is really very simple. The needs of Cyprus (100 million standard cubic feet per day) are not even remotely enough to justify interim LNG, stationary or floating. The only possibility for Cyprus interim solution has always been CNG; and if, for whatever reason, that is seen as unworkable, then staying with diesel, with all the associated environmental problems and EU fines is preferable, by far.

France's Total joins Cyprus energy rush

AFP

Cyprus on Wednesday signed an agreement with French energy major Total to conduct exploratory drilling for gas and oil in two blocks off its southern shore.

The deal comes as Cyprus aspires to become a regional energy hub with the prospect of oil as well as natural gas being tapped beneath the sea bed.

"With today's act the government has completed one of the most crucial aims in its energy policy, that of successfully conducting a second round of licensing," Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis told reporters after the signing ceremony.

Total signed a deal to exploit blocks 10 and 11 that are adjacent to a large natural gas find in block 12 and said it seeks to proceed in drilling for oil as well as gas reserves in the said blocks.

Turkey has protested strongly against Nicosia's energy search, branding it illegal and beginning its own exploratory drilling off the breakaway north of the island.

Ankara has warned that companies involved in the Cyprus process could be shut out of Turkey's energy investment.

Sylikiotis said that having countries such as France, America and Italy involved in the island's hydrocarbon exploration acted as a "political shield" against Turkish threats.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece.

It is estimated that there could be around 60 trillion cubic feet of gas lying in the 13 blocks that make up Cyprus's 51,000 square kilometre exclusive economic zone.

Azerbaijan to purchase Turkish T-129 ATAK helicopters, total cost $3 billion

Turkey's native Attack Helicopter T-129 ATAK on training flight

Azerbaijan will purchase 60 T-129 ATAK helicopters manufactured by Turkey, the Sabah newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the report, Azerbaijan ordered T-129 ATAK helicopters from the Turkish aerospace company Türk Havacılık ve Uzay Sanayii (TAI), and mass production will begin in this year.

Purchase of 60 helicopters, specially manufactured for Azerbaijan, will cost $3 billion.

Besides Azerbaijan, UAE, Malaysia, Pakistan and Jordan showed an interest in buying helicopters.

Turkish-made ATAK combat helicopters are part of the state program aimed at ensuring the Turkish army with arms, equipment and outfit of own production. Currently, Turkey has achieved self-sufficiency in this sector at 50 percent.

ATAK helicopters can reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, to fly in any weather conditions and poor visibility.

Iraqi Kurds woo more oil majors in contest with Baghdad

Julia Payne & Simon Falush       Reuters

Iraqi Kurdistan said it is negotiating with two or three major international companies to operate oilfields and expects to announce the outcome in about a month, in a move likely to further heighten tensions with Baghdad.

The remarks by Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami on Tuesday highlight the autonomous region's resolve to push ahead with development of its oil resources independently of the Baghdad-based central government.

Kurdistan has upset the central government by signing deals directly with oil majors such as Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil, providing lucrative production-sharing contracts and better operating conditions than in the south of the country.

Last week Hawrami said Kurdistan, which is in the north of Iraq and has run its own administration and armed forces since 1991, had awarded Chevron a stake in the Qara Dagh oil block.

"We are negotiating with two to three other significant companies. They will hopefully be announced in a month or so," Hawrami told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in London.

He also said Exxon Mobil's contentious deal to operate in the autonomous region was on track.

Gas in the eastern Mediterranean: Drill, or quarrel?

The Economist 

Politics could choke supplies from big new offshore gasfields

AN OLD joke—that Moses led his people to the only place in the Middle East without oil—needs updating. Israel may not have oil, but it does have gas. The Tamar gasfield, discovered in 2009 off Israel’s coast, holds great promise. Leviathan, discovered in 2010, holds even more. The US Geological Survey reckons that there could be 120 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable gas in the Levant basin, which washes the shores of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus (see map). So far, however, only 35tcf has been located. And as Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute, a think-tank, points out: “Israel’s initial euphoria” is fading. The region’s political fractiousness does not end at the water’s edge.

Israel, which relies heavily on imported energy, has much to gain. The gas discovered so far could satisfy its domestic demand for 20 years, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. And exports could yield oodles of cash. Cyprus stands to benefit, too, from the 7tcf so far discovered off its coast. It currently generates 95% of its energy with pricey oil; gas would be cheaper, and could be exported.

Turkey bought a new seismic research vessel for oil and gas seismic exploration of the offshore continental shelf

Turkey's new seismic research vessel(old name is Polarcus samur) bought from Norwegian Palarcus Company. Vessel named as Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa

Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) plans to use the 3D vessel to conduct extensive seismic exploration of the offshore continental shelf of Turkey in both the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Through this collaboration arrangement Polarcus will assist TPAO to significantly improve its understanding of the offshore continental shelf of Turkey, potentially opening up several new provinces for future exploration activity, and also position the Company for prime access to this important emerging market.

Vessel docked at Istanbul today.

Turkey reached important strategic element on oil and natural gas research and exploration dispute on eastern mediterranean and aegean sea against the Israel, Greek Cyprus and Greece with this new seismic research vessel.

New Seismic vessel also important element in new offshore energy exploration projects on Turkey's exclusive economic zone.

Turkey signed a deal last year for contruction of another seismic research vessel http://www.ssm.gov.tr/home/projects/Sayfalar/proje.aspx?projeID=32

Second seismic research vessel construction deal signed for MTA (Mineral Research & Exploration General Directorate) http://www.mta.gov.tr/v2.0/daire-baskanliklari/deniz/index.php?id=yeni-gemi-duyuru

Specifications of the Vessel Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa

8 streamer ARCTIC-READY 3D/4D seismic vessel

Turkey Beating Norway as Biggest Regional Oil Driller: Energy

Offshore Oil drilling on Turkey's Black sea cost

Selcan Hacaloğlu & Brian Swint       Bloomberg


Turkey is drilling for oil and natural gas with more rigs than any European country and plans new rules in 2013 to speed exploration of energy supplies for the fastest-growing major economy after China.

The country fielded 26 rigs at Dec. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the number has since risen to 34, Energy Ministry officials said yesterday. Turkey has leapfrogged Norway as offshore drilling increased in the Black and Mediterranean seas. Spending on exploration jumped to $610 million last year from $42 million a decade earlier.

With economic growth forecast at 3.5 percent this year and about twice the pace of the most advanced economies to 2017, Turkey is drilling for its own energy to ease reliance on imports from Iran, Iraq and Russia. State-owned Turkish Petroleum Corp. has taken Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) as partners, after neighboring Israel and Cyprus made some of the decade’s biggest gas finds in the past three years.

“If there’s one country that needs energy, it’s Turkey,” said Darren Engels, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital in Calgary. “Their domestic business doesn’t scratch the surface.”

Turkish Petroleum, which is known as TPAO and has operations in Libya, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Colombia and Kazakhstan, needs to boost domestic output as it pursues a target of supplying all of Turkey’s energy needs by 2023.

Turkey eyes role in Iraq’s oil and gas shares

Sevim Songün Demirezen      Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey should secure a place for itself in both the northern and southern oil and gas fields of Iraq since its energy future is inextricably linked with its southern neighbor, despite frequent recent friction, sector representatives have said.

“If there is energy somewhere, then it has to flow somewhere else. You can’t escape that fate,” said Mehmet Öğütçü, the head of Global Resources Corporation, implying that fuel drilled in Iraq would be transported outside the country regardless of political or economic obstacles.

Speakers at yesterday’s “Natural Gas as the Game Changer” roundtable meeting organized by the Marmara Group Foundation predicted that Iraq would have a significant place in the natural gas bus sector in the coming years.

“Iraq will be producing around 19 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2035, which means it will become the fifth or sixth biggest producer in the world,” said Tahir Uysal, a partner at Silso Oil.

Turkey should not only conduct energy investments in northern Iraq, but should also pursue ties in the southern part of the country as well, he told the Daily News on the sidelines of the meeting.

Turkey to explore fuel with Shell in Black Sea

 

Hurriyet Daily News

Turkish Petroleum Corporation plans to search for oil in the Black Sea with Shell, sources say. However, the ministry has not announced officially

 Turkey’s state-run oil researcher TPAO prepares to search for oil in the Black Sea with the Anglo-Dutch Shell, after failed attempts by international energy companies, according to sources.

The ministerial sources said TPAO and the Holland-United Kingdom-based Shell have been in contact for an oil exploration partnership in the Black Sea. The contract date has been determined to be Feb. 14, when the two companies will reveal their search and production deal to the public, sources said.

Furthermore, TPAO, which has carried out oil and natural gas exploration by itself, has received a proposal from Shell to work together in the Gulf of Mersin, alongside the other companies’ proposals, sources say. TPAO might strike a deal with Shell or another company for a partnership in Mersin, as it had talks with 13 companies for exploring in the İskenderun-Mersin Gulf last year.