NGFE Reports: Prospects for Shale Gas in Turkey
Turkey also has great shale gas potential, explained Attila Aydemir, Coordinator for Unconventional Resources at the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) who spoke at the recent Global Shale Gas Summit in Warsaw.
“Potential Shale gas opportunities in Turkey,” he said, “are located in the country’s Dadas formation, situated on the northernmost area of the Arabian plate”
At present, experts are determining how fracable Dadas is, according to Aydemir. “The carbonate content is very high, from 25-50%. And clay content is high, similar to Haynesville shale.”
He continued, “There are also many basins in the northeast of Turkey. The Ardahan basin has thickness of over 1,000 meters. Although a promising basin for unconventional sources, the surface of the volcanics is a great issue for us. Although we have only one well drilled in this formation, the geochemical analysis shows high TOCs (total organic content) which is quite encouraging.”
Aydemir said that Turkey’s Thrace Basin (the European side of the country) provides for most of Turkish domestic natural gas production, almost 95%. “At the Hamitabat gas field there, in operation from 1981-86, we are performing hydraulic fracturing,” he reported.
“The onshore Black Sea formation is also promising,” Aydemir said, dubbed the Caglayan Formation-2. “The TOCs are sufficient but we need to collect some additional samples from the well data.”
He also listed the Salt Lake formation where there were also some encouraging values, and said the Akkuyu Formation-1 in the Taurus mountains had high TOC and TMAX making them good for shale gas exploration.
To illustrate Turkey’s natural gas infrastructure, Mr. Aydemir showed a map of the country. He commented, “Our pipeline map is becoming denser year by year. The country has four major refineries. Crude oil and natural gas is set to increase in a linear form until 2020.”
“We have our own drilling department and seismic crews, with operations in Columbia, Libya, Iraq, are partnering in the Caspian with Azerbaijan, potential projects with Iran, and I hope we’ll be in Syria in the near future.”
“We’ve just signed an agreement with Transatlantic Petroleum and operations are supposed to begin this summer,” Aydemir said. “We are willing to share our expertise of local geology with companies that are experienced in unconventional technologies and are willing to invest in Turkey.”
Aydemir added that the shale formation in Southeastern Turkey was very important for TPAO. “They are natural areas. We have not drilled any wells targeting unconventional sources there as of yet.”
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