Turkey's shale gas hopes draw growing interest

TPAO's shale gas drilling area Sarıbuğday-1 in southeast Turkey

Orhan Coskun and Evrim Ergin     Reuters


Several firms eye exploration licences, official say
Southeastern region around Diyarbakir main prospect
Major reserves could reduce reliance on imported energy


ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is hoping to find shale gas reserves big enough to help reduce its energy import dependency and is in talks with foreign firms about widening exploration after encouraging early signs, industry officials said on Monday.

The government is hoping that major shale gas reserves lie in basins in its southeast, east and western Thrace regions and officials say several firms, including smaller players already looking for conventional oil and gas, are keen to explore.

With domestic gas consumption rising and its geographic location meaning it is also well-placed to supply international markets, major exploitable reserves could be a game changer for Turkey's economy and highly lucrative for whoever finds them.

"We are keen to exploit this method and we must make economic use of shale gas," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters, saying it would be a priority for the near future.

Shell is drilling for shale gas in the region around the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, while Canadian firm TransAtlantic Petroleum is also active in the region.

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 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.