There Is An Estimated 6 Billion Barrels of Shale Oil Reserve in Southeast Turkey

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.

If confirmed, such reserves would place Turkey above some OPEC members such as Congo or Gabon, and other major producers such as the UK.

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 Sirnak province in southeast Turkey this week.

The minister previously heralded the March agreement as "a new era" 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.

Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan also announced a discovery of a new reserve of 75 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas during drilling works in the Black Sea.

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