Turkish Energy Minister Alp Arslan Bayrakdar said that the American Continental Resources Company for Oil Production estimates the shale oil reserves in the Diyarbakir Basin in southeast Türkiye at up to 6.1 billion barrels.
Continental Resources and the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, the National Oil Company in Türkiye, signed a joint venture agreement in March to develop shale oil fields in the region.
“The current annual imports of (crude) oil amounts to 365 million barrels. So, the reserve of 6.1 billion barrels is a large number,” Turkish Energy Minister Alp Arslan Bayrakdar told reporters during his visit to southeast Turkey this week.
The minister previously praised the agreement signed in March and described it as a “new era in local exploration of crude oil”, as Türkiye considers the discoveries of shale oil and gas an important development.
Bayrakdar said that Türkiye aims to produce shale gas from the northern western region of Taraa.
“Perhaps the oil and gas may make a qualitative shift,” he added.
Turkey is not a major oil and gas producer, and currently imports more than 90% of its energy needs.
The government seeks to reduce the import bill, enhance supplies security by developing local resources, and expanding international partnerships in oil and gas exploration.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said that Türkiye has discovered a new reserve of 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas during the excavation work in the Black Sea.
Two nuclear power plants
In another context, Bayrakdar said that Türkiye is in talks with Canadian Energy Kando and other companies on plans to build its second and third nuclear stations.
“Russia, South Korea and China are interested in the second and third energy stations. In addition to these countries, there are countries and other companies that we are negotiating,” Bayrakdar told reporters during a recent visit to Southeast Türkiye.
He added: “One of them is Canada, for example. Kando.”
Ross Atom, the Russian governmental nuclear energy company, adopted the first nuclear power plant in Türkiye in Aq Qawu, Mersin region, on the Mediterranean, according to an agreement worth $ 20 billion signed in 2010.
Türkiye intends to build a second nuclear plant in the Sinop area on the Black Sea and a third station in the northern western region of Taraqiya.
