Black Sea provides one fifth of Turkey's natural gas

TPAO, Turkey’s sole national oil company, has produced 350,000 cubic metres of natural gas as a result of activities carried out in the Black Sea. Potentials of onshore and offshore are examined in the seismic studies conducted in the 1990s in the sea search areas of the Black Sea and Mediterranean in Turkey, according to the statistics released by TPAO. As a result of activities carried out in the Black Sea, natural gas production started and nearly 350,000 cubic meters of natural gas produced daily from Ayazli-Akkaya and Dogu Ayazli region in 2012. The annual natural gas production was 127 million cubic meters in the same region which accounted for one fifth of Turkey's 664 million cubic meters of natural gas production in 2012. In recent years, new technologies in offshore activities help TPAO gain exploration and production experiences under deep water (1,000 –2,000 m) and create the structure of offshore hydrocarbon exploration. TPAO continues its exploration activities in Black Sea, Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea since 2004. In the last 10 years, natural gas production with unconventional methods increased  especially in North America. In parallel with these developments TPAO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Transatlantic TEMI that includes 3 license fields in offshore areas of the Mediterranean region of Antalya. TPAO and Shell signed a joint  cooperation agreement to produce natural gas with unconventional production techniques on 23 November 2011. In this regard, project workouts carried during year, drilling in Saribugday-1 well continued. It is expected that unconventional gas production, implemented for the first time in Turkey, will help meet the hydrocarbon need of Turkey.