Turkey to spend more on exploration
Posted by meb at April 24th, 2008
Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO), Turkey’s state-run oil company, will spend $826 million this year on gas and oil exploration to meet rising demand.
Hüseyin Yakar, a manager at TPAO, didn’t give a figure for last year’s investment in exploration. It was $350 million in 2006 and $70 million in 2002, according to the Energy Ministry.
Turkey imports nearly all of its oil and gas, and higher global energy prices have helped swell the current-account deficit to $3.7 billion in February. Energy demand is rising in Turkey amid six consecutive years of economic growth.
Turkey has mainly explored off its Black Sea coast, where it hopes to find a “giant field,” Yakar told an energy conference in Istanbul Tuesday. Turkey began producing gas last year near the Black Sea town of Akçakoca, a site that’s yielding 500,000 cubic meters a day, Yakar said.
TPAO is now “shifting priority” to the Mediterranean and last year completed the collection of seismic data at two sets of blocks near the cities of Antalya and Mersin, Yakar also said.
source: Turkish Daily News
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