Shale gas search intensifies in Central Anatolia

Turkey is intensifying its search for natural gas and oil in Central Anatolia, but "needs to do much more to meet Turkey's energy needs," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said at a press conference on Wednesday. The minister said that the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), Turkey's state oil firm, had "stepped up efforts in Central Anatolia" and found traces of shale gas in the central provinces of Ankara, Kirsehir and Konya. Ankara's search for shale gas deposits in previous months has focused on the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, where TPAO is drilling exploratory wells in a joint project with Shell. Yildiz said efforts to find shale gas are necessary as Turkey's energy needs are growing, and it continues to import around 97 percent of its natural gas from abroad. He downplayed hopes that the discovery of a natural gas deposit on Tuesday in Istanbul's Silivri district would go far towards meeting Turkey's appetite for 46 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. "It would be misleading to say this is will bring a solution to our energy needs. The feasibility studies on the [Silivri] well haven't been finished." Taking the example of Merty Energy, the private company behind the Silivri gas find, Yildiz suggested that private companies could play a central role in energy exploration if they are "more attentive" to opportunities in Turkey. Stating that Turkey's economic prosperity was tied to new energy discoveries, he said a discovery "may mean massive profits for a company, but I think a sense that this is for all of Turkey would be a better management attitude." Private and state explorers are unsure of how much extractable shale gas Turkey holds, with one Reuters report suggesting that reserves could vary from 20 trillion cubic meters (cbm) of gas to a much more modest 6-7 billion cbm. Reuters suggested this week that several international energy companies may be on the verge of signing on to the search for Turkish shale gas. Experts have suggested that even if significant gas reserves are found, it would take until 2016 to develop the infrastructure to exploit them.