Turkey to explore fuel with Shell in Black Sea

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

An oil search platform of TPAO is seen in this file. TPAO aims to intensify its oil search in the Black Sea, as the sources indicates that it tends to make a deal with Shell.

Turkey’s state-run oil researcher TPAO prepares to search for oil in the Black Sea with the Anglo-Dutch Shell, after failed attempts by international energy companies, according to sources.

The ministerial sources said TPAO and the Holland-United Kingdom-based Shell have been in contact for an oil exploration partnership in the Black Sea. The contract date has been determined to be Feb. 14, when the two companies will reveal their search and production deal to the public, sources said.

Furthermore, TPAO, which has carried out oil and natural gas exploration by itself, has received a proposal from Shell to work together in the Gulf of Mersin, alongside the other companies’ proposals, sources say. TPAO might strike a deal with Shell or another company for a partnership in Mersin, as it had talks with 13 companies for exploring in the İskenderun-Mersin Gulf last year.

However, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has stated that TPAO would make a deal with “a giant company” in the next two or three weeks for oil exploration in the Black Sea, but did not give a company’s name. He also said in November 2012 that a company that has not made oil explorations in the Black Sea yet applied for oil exploration there. The world’s leading companies, such as Petrobas, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have drilled in the Black Sea.

On the other hand, the Shell CEO said the company was working on the other side of Black Sea, but they would like to also work on the Turkish side, during his meeting with Yıldız and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in September 2012. Moreover, Shell Turkey’s CEO recently stressed their interest in the Black Sea.
Shell has been conducting gas and oil exploration with TPAO in Turkey in the southeastern provinces of Batman and Diyarbakır, the central Anatolian province of Sivas as well as off the Mediterranean shore.

A renewed Turkey in energy sector
Yıldız stated Turkey should urgently renew its aging power stations and grids, adding that electricity meters that have operated for ten years will be renewed and the cost will not be reflected on consumers, Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

“We cannot allow Turkey to have stations and grids used for 30 or 35 years in 2023. Turkey should be renewed completely in the energy sector in 2023,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yıldız stated that TPAO would continue its work in Libya despite the country’s rising internal disorder. TPAO applied for new search fields during its visit to Libya two weeks ago.