Transatlantic Petroleum Ltd. aims to double its oil production in 2015, said a high-ranking company official in Ankara.
Selami Uras, the vice president of the company that actively operates in oil and gas upstream sector in Turkey, told The Anadolu Agency that Transatlantic currently produces 9500 boe/d of hydrocarbons, 5500 barrels of which is crude oil and the rest, natural gas.
'Our company now operates 223 wells in Turkey 77 of which are oil and 146 are natural gas', said Uras. 'Transatlantic is the second biggest natural gas producer in Turkey and third in oil.'
Turkey's crude oil production stands at a little more than 46,000 barrels per day, which makes 10 percent of its total supply, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
State-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation is the biggest oil producer in the country and Perenco, an international oil company is the second.
Transatlantic operates in southeastern Turkey for oil and in the western region of Thrace for gas exploration and production.
Uras said that a new exploration well, called 'Bahar-6,” which is located in the southeastern part of Turkey, has a potential to become Turkey’s most productive oil well as of 2015.
Stating that the well was now in the test phase, Uras said they expected 1200 bpd from that single well when they start commercial production.
Uras said the geographical structure was challenging as they had to drill 3,000 meters to reach the oil.
Uras also stated that the current low oil prices did not affect their business.
'It will not affect the current production', he said. 'However, lower prices downgrade the financial expectations, so the exploration investments lose their eagerness. For example, one must invest $8-10 million for the exploration and drilling of a 4,000-meter deep well.'
Selami Uras said they used shale technology, an unconventional method for oil and gas extraction, in their operations in Turkey. He said they used 'fracking' in the Bahar-6 well and other wells.
'Fracking' indicates the fracturing of rocks to extract gas or fuel using fluid pressure, most often with chemical additives.
By Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu and Nihan Cabbaroglu
Anadolu Agency
nihan.cabbaroglu@aa.com.tr
muhsin.tiryakioglu@aa.com.tr