Valeura Sees Shale Gas Potential In Turkey Licence Award

Valeura Energy Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a new exploration licence (Banarli Licence 5104) on a 100 percent working interest basis in the Thrace Basin of northwest Turkey.

The Banarli Licence 5104, which was awarded to Valeura by the General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, has a four year initial term and
covers an area of 118,598 gross acres (185 sections or 185 square miles) located near the centre and deepest part of the Thrace Basin.

Valeura believes the licence is ideally located to test for a potential basin centre gas play and to explore for unconventional tight gas and shale gas in those areas where the Mezardere shale source rocks are at depths below 3,000 metres and may be at pressures and temperatures sufficient to create an active "kitchen" for hydrocarbon generation. Valeura also takes the position that the overlying Ergene, Danismen and Osmancik formations, which are also more deeply buried across the licence, may also be prospective for conventional gas exploration.

Under the Banarli licence terms, a well will need to be spudded within the first year to keep the licence in good stead. Valeura plans to initially carry out a targeted 2D seismic program to complement the existing 2D seismic coverage on the licence

The licence is unexplored with only two relatively shallow wells drilled of which the latest, Karaca 1, was plugged and abandoned at a depth of 1,026 metres in November 2010.