In search of petroleum: Is Turkey the next frontier?

The world is hungry for more oil, and because oil supply will eventually run out, finding more sources of oil is becoming more important than ever.

Image Source: online.wsj.com

According to this online article, one of the countries that has a big potential in becoming a major player in the petroleum industry is Turkey. This assumption comes as a surprise considering that Turkey imports 90 percent of the oil and gas it needs. And although the country produces only 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and has only 270 million barrels of proven oil reserves and 218 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, more and more major oil and gas companies are becoming interested in Turkey, primarily because of its untapped shale oil reserves, and its location—right in the middle of primary oil-producing regions, namely:

• To the north, the Black Sea, which is considered to be rich in oil;

Image Source: acus.org

• The Azerbaijani oil fields to the east;

• 27 billion barrels of onshore oil fields like Iraq’s Kirkuk field to the south; and

• To the west, the 22+ billion barrels of oil in the Ionian Sea, 4 billion barrels in the Northern Aegean Sea, 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas offshore Greek-held Cyprus, and 33+ trillion cubic feet of gas in the nearby Israeli waters.

In addition to Turkey being investor-friendly, it has a huge web of pipelines, refineries, and export terminals.

Image Source: thewashingtonreview.org

Dr. Ali Ghalambor has co-authored the book Petroleum Production Engineering: A Computer-Assisted Approach to explain the entire process of petroleum engineering. More about his work can be found at this Twitter page.