Large firms study on oil search in Turkey

ISTANBUL

TPAO will start receiving bids on May 15 from companies eager to search for oil in Mersin and İskenderun. AFP photo

Turkey’s national oil and gas company and energy regulator will soon receive applications from corporations to search for oil in Turkey and import natural gas from Iraq, respectively.

Chevron, Total, Petrobras, Statoil, ConocoPhillips, OMV, RWE, Genel Enerji and BG are preparing applications to search for oil in southern Turkey’s Mersin-İskenderun region, an energy official told Reuters. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) will start receiving bids for the oil search on May 15.
TPAO said although they expected to reach an agreement with one particular company, they could consider increasing this number if there were different applications for more than one license.
Meanwhile, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) has set an April 9 deadline to receive bids to import natural gas from Iraq. Turkey needs different sources of natural gas as it used 48.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2011, according to Reuters.

2014-2033 period

According to the regulation, private companies are allowed to import gas from any country from which Turkey’s state-run natural gas supplier BOTAŞ does not buy.

According to the EPDK stipulations, the applications will cover the 2014 to 2033 period and will start with the importation of 700 million cubic meters and will go up to 3.2 billion cubic meters, according to the EPDK website. The EPDK has already looked favorably upon Siyah Kalem Mühendislik’s application.