Shell ramps up upstream activities toward Turkey 2023
In November 2011, Shell and Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) signed a joint operating agreement to initiate exploration and production onshore and offshore Turkey oil and gas fields.
In this agreement Shell and TPAO are considering the development of conventional and unconventional resources.
Focusing originally on the Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia, Shell and TPAO decided to extend this operating agreement to the Black Sea.
At the crossroad between Europe, Middle-East-Africa and Asia, Turkey is joining the group of the emerging countries with sustainable growth supported by the most dynamic industry in the region and significant oil and gas resources.
In this context, Turkey assigned itself the goal to enter the Top 10 economical countries by year of the establishment of Republic of Turkey.
To support this ambition, Turkey listed a number of initiatives and targets to be achieved as part of Turkey Vision 2023.
Beside to become the fifth largest tourist destination, one of the major initiative of Turkey Vision 2023 is to become energy self-sufficient in 2023.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Turkey would 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically shale gas recoverable reserves.
As national oil company (NOC), TPAO has got the mandate to explore and develop all the potential resources in Turkey to boost the oil and gas production in order to meet 2023 demand.
Shell, TPAO and TAT explore onshore Dadas and Sivas
In March 2012, Shell and TPAO began preparatory work for their exploration program for the shale gas Dadas project.
Dadas license is related to shale gas fields located in southeast Anatolia on north of Diyarbakir and Batman.
During this preliminary phase, Shell and TPAO are assessing the health, environmental and social conditions of the Saribugday 1 field within shale gas Dadas project.
Part of this first phase is to confirm the nature of the rock formations and evaluate the volume of the shale gas resources.
Then Shell and TPAO will investigate how to optimize the drilling operations to come in 2013.
Shell and TPAO should begin by drilling five wells that could be expanded to ten in the future.
For the Diyarbakir shale gas field, Shell and TPAO signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) where they would have respective working interests:
– TPAO 70%
– Shell 30%
In parallel, Shell signed an agreement with Transatlantic Petroleum Ltd (TAT) on the Sivas basin in central Anatolia.
TAT is the owner and operator for this exploratory phase of the Sivas license.
All along 2012, TAT will perform a 2D seismic campaign of measurement and collection of data while Shell will analyze these data to evaluate the potential reserves..
In conclusion of this preliminary work, Shell will decide on first quarter 2013 to move forward in the Sivas project and to convert the actual agreement into Farm-in agreement with TAT.
Shell – TPAO go offshore Mediterranean and Black Sea
Shell and TPAO selected three blocks offshore the southwest coast of Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea to start this offshore exploration campaign.
The area where are located these three blocks has never been drilled before so that Shell and TPAO are proceeding first with a seismic data and measurement to identify the most promising zones.
Since 2007, TPAO explores the Antalya, Mersin and İskenderun offshore areas from where 10.000 km 2D and 1.000 km2 3D seismic data have ben acquired.
According to the actual planning for the collection and analysis of these information, Shell and TPAO are considering to move on exploratory wells in 2014.
In addition to the Mediterranean Sea, Shell and TPAO are planning to expand their agreement to the Black Sea.
TPAO plans to Farm-out the 3534, 3920, 3921 and 3922 ultra deep water licences where exploration activities have been going on by drilling of series wells.
With the Dadas and Sivas shale gas fields in southeast Anatolia and the offshore fields in Mediterranean and Black Sea, Turkey is opening up through joint venture like Shell and TPAO new territories for the conventional and unconventional resources exploration and production in the perspective to reach self-sufficiency for the Vision 2023.
