THE 

TURKISH BLACK SEA: 
POSITIVE OPPORTUNITIES IN E&P BEYOND 2015 

Gorkem Yusuf TOPCU
Energy Expert
Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey
 OUTLINE

™ E&P Activities in Turkey
™ Turkish Black Sea: E&P Activities
™ Current and Future Plans for Turkish Black Sea
™ Turkish Natural Gas Market
™ Black Sea Resources from the Perspective of Market 
Regulator (EMRA) 
E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
Seismic activities in 2014
 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
Regional distribution of wells
 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKEY
• Total crude oil production in 2014: 2.4 million tones
Production / National consumption : 8%

• Total natural gas production in 2014: 480 mcm

Production / National consumption: 1%
 OUTLINE

™ E&P Activities in Turkey
™ Turkish Black Sea: E&P Activities
™ Current and Future Plans for Turkish Black Sea
™ Turkish Natural Gas Market
™ Black Sea Resources from the Perspective of Market 
Regulator (EMRA) 
 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA
Licence map for deep water exploration

3921 3922

3920 3923

3534

Before the new Petroleum Law

 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA
Licence map for deep water exploration

After the new Petroleum Law

 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA
Seismic database of Turkish Black Sea

~136.000 km2 2D
~16.500 km2 3D
E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA
 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA

Drilled deep water wells

 E&P ACTIVITIES IN TURKISH BLACK SEA

AKCAKOCA PROJECT – SHALLOW WATER
Akçakoca
KARADEN
İZ

Çayağzı
Gaz
Proses
Tesisi
TPAO-
Botaş
16”
Gaz
Boru
Hattı

• Natural gas production: 220,000 m3  / day

• No further exploration activity

• But some workover operations like perforation.

 OUTLINE

™ E&P Activities in Turkey
™ Turkish Black Sea: E&P Activities
™ Current and Future Plans for Turkish Black Sea
™ Turkish Natural Gas Market
™ Black Sea Resources from the Perspective of Market 
Regulator (EMRA) 
 CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS FOR
TURKISH BLACK SEA

™ No commercial discovery at Istranca 1‐2‐3 wells. Only termogenic gas tested.

™ TPAO‐Shell joint venture for District 3920 until 2022.

• Sile‐1 well drilled by June 2015.
• Evaluations are going on.

™ Due to high capital expenditures, only TPAO is capable of drilling new

offshore wells.

™ Due to low oil prices, no definite investment plan in Black Sea until 2018.

™ Romanian Domino discovery encourages investments in Black Sea. There

may be some exploration activities for biogenic gas resources by TPAO on its
own or with a partner.
 OUTLINE

™ E&P Activities in Turkey
™ Turkish Black Sea: E&P Activities
™ Current and Future Plans for Turkish Black Sea
™ Turkish Natural Gas Market
™ Black Sea Resources from the Perspective of Market 
Regulator (EMRA) 
 TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET

• Natural gas production is not an activity within the scope of the Natural Gas 
Market Law. 

• Exploration and production of natural gas fall under the jurisdiction  of the 
Petroleum Law No. 6326 and exploration and production licenses are granted 
by the General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs.

• Production Companies holding wholesale license may sell gas to

Wholesale companies
Import companies
Distribution companies
Eligible consumers (upto 20% of annual consumption forecast)

• Production Companies holding export license may engage in export activity

TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET
 TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET

Natural gas utilization

Electricity Production
2%
6%
Industry
21% 46%

Households
25%
Government Offices
and Commerical
Offices
Other
TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET
TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET
TURKISH NATURAL GAS MARKET
Natural gas storage facilities
 OUTLINE

™ E&P Activities in Turkey
™ Turkish Black Sea: E&P Activities
™ Current and Future Plans for Turkish Black Sea
™ Turkish Natural Gas Market
™ Black Sea Resources from the Perspective of 
Market Regulator (EMRA) 
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARKET 
REGULATOR (EMRA) 
™ Trans Anatolian Pipeline
(TANAP) Project is 
expected to be in operation
by 2018. besides the final 
capacity of 31 bcm, at the
first stage, 16 bcm gas will
flow through. 6 bcm is for
Turkey.

™ Turkish Stream project has 

totally 63 bcm capacity. The
permits for the first stage of 
15.75 bcm line was
acquired but the project
was suspended.
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARKET 
REGULATOR (EMRA) 
 FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARKET 
REGULATOR (EMRA) 
Resource diversification (other projects & private companies)
™ EMRA Board rendered a decision, paving the way for private sector companies to import
natural gas from Iraq. The Board Decision welcomed the private sector applications in
order to obtain natural gas import license, as a result of this process one company obtained
import license in September 2013, in order to import natural gas from Iraq.

™ In the 13.03.2014 EMRA Board rendered another decision welcoming import license
applications from Kazakhstan. The evaluation process is yet to come.

™ Iran and Eastern Meditarrenean gas resources?

™ As a result of the contract release tenders, also taking into account domestic production
and other imports by the private sector, the market share of private sector increased to 25
per cent of the total consumption.

™ Herein, to take this 25% upper levels, the extraction of the potential Black Sea
resources is crucial for Turkey to foster its liberalization process, to increase
the share of the private sector by the way and decrease the the import
dependency to reasonable levels.
THANK YOU
 REFERENCES

™ Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey, EMRA,

www.emra.org.tr
™ General Directorate of Petroleum Affaire, GDPA,
www.pigm.gov.tr
™ Turkish Petroleum Co., TPAO,
www.tpao.gov.tr
™ BOTAS,
www.botas.gov.tr