Turkey looks to realize its huge shale gas potential

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s shale gas potential is shown on this map, which was prepared by Advanced Resources International and taken from the EIA report. AFP photo

Turkey has appeared to accelerate its local energy exploration and production activities, specifically in local shale gas.

“Many have said there is huge potential of shale gas reserves in Turkey, specifically in the Central Anatolian cities of Ankara, Konya and Nevşehir, although it is not feasible to give accurate figures about the reserves before the completion of our exploration activities. We have already undertaken a series of shale gas exploration activities around Turkey, for example we have been drilling below 3,000 meters with Shell in the eastern city of Diyarbakır, and planning such activities in the Thrace Basin,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said yesterday during the share and operations transfer ceremony of the 600 megawatt (MW) Seyitömer thermal power plant.

Shell and Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) began exploring for shale gas in the eastern province of Diyarbakır’s Sarıbuğday-1 natural gas field in September 2012.

The Southeast Anatolia Basin in southern Turkey and the Thrace Basin in western Turkey have active shale oil and gas exploration underway by TPAO and several international companies, according to the latest report by the U.S.-based Energy Information Agency (EIA), as reported by daily Hürriyet. There may also be shale gas resources in the Sivas and Salt Lake basins. However, only limited reservoir data are available for these two lightly explored basins, the report said.

The EIA estimated that the Dadaş Shale in the Southeast Anatolian Basin and the Hamitabat Shale in the Thrace Basin contain 163 trillion cubic feet (tcf) (4.6 trillion cubic meters) of risked shale gas in-place, with 24 tcf (651 bcm) as the risked, technically recoverable shale gas resource. In addition, they estimate that these two shale basins also contain 94 billion barrels of risked shale oil in-place, with 4.7 billion barrels as the risked, technically recoverable shale oil resource.

Costly and complex

Turkey could meet 14 years of its gas demand by using the technically recoverable shale gas resource, 651 bcm, estimated in the report.

Natural gas currently provides 21 percent of global energy supplies, according to energy experts. There had been about 50 to 60 years’ worth of gas supply globally until a couple of years ago, but now it is believed there is minimum of a 200-year supply arising from discoveries of shale gas.


 This appears to be great news for the world, which has been increasingly more addicted to energy resources.

“The EIA report indicates a significant potential for international [shale oil and] shale gas, around 7,299 tcf, but extracting shale gas is more costly and complex than extracting conventional gas.

Environmental concerns in global shale development are another issue. The drilling technique has already been banned in France and will likely face opposition in other countries due to its negative environmental impacts,” a senior energy expert told the Hürriyet Daily News.