Minister: Estimated 6 billion-barrel shale oil reserves in southeast Turkey
The Turkish Energy Minister said that U.S. oil company Continental Resources estimated there to be 6.1 billion barrels of shale-oil reserves in Turkey's southeast Diyarbakir Basin.
Continental Resources and the Turkish National Oil Company TPAO signed a Joint Venture Agreement in March for the development of shale-fields in this basin.
"The current (crude oil) imports by Turkey amount to 365,000,000 barrels. "A 6.1 billion-barrel reserve is an impressive figure," said Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar to reporters on a recent visit to the southeast of Turkey.
The Minister had previously hailed the March agreement, describing it as "a new age in local crude exploration", with Turkey viewing shale gas and oil discoveries as an important development. Bayraktar stated that the country aims to produce shale-gas from the northwestern Thrace area.
He said that "shale oil and gas could be game changers."
Continental Resources didn't respond immediately to a comment request.
The Turkish energy market is dominated by imports. It does not produce much oil or gas.
By developing domestic resources, and by expanding international partnerships for oil and gas exploration, the government hopes to reduce its import bill while boosting supply security.
Tayyip Erdoan announced recently that Turkey discovered a new natural gas reserve of 75 billion cubic meters (bcm) during drilling operations in the Black Sea. (Reporting and writing by Nevzat Dvranoglu, Huseyin Haatsever, Editing by Kate Mayberry).
(source: Reuters)
