U.S. oil producer Continental Resources estimates there is a shale oil reserve of 6.1 billion barrels in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakir Basin, the Turkish energy minister said.
Continental Resources and Turkish national oil company TPAO signed a joint venture agreement in March to develop shale fields in the basin.
“Turkey’s current annual (crude) oil import amounts to 365 million barrels. So a 6.1 billion barrel reserve is a great figure,” Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told reporters during a visit to southeast Turkey this week.
The minister previously heralded the March agreement as “a new era in local crude oil exploration” with Turkey viewing shale oil and gas discoveries as a key development. It is aiming to produce shale gas from the northwestern Thrace region, Bayraktar said.
“Shale oil and shale gas could be a game changer,” he said.
Continental Resources did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Turkey is not a major oil and gas producer and currently imports more than 90% of its energy needs.
The government is looking to cut its import bill and boost supply security by developing domestic resources and expanding international partnerships in oil and gas exploration.
President Tayyip Erdogan recently announced that Turkey had discovered a new reserve of 75 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas during drilling works in the Black Sea.
(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Kate Mayberry)