What Does Erdogan Election Win Mean for Turkiye Oil and Gas?

Overall, we can expect more of the same.

That’s what Enverus’ Regional Manager for the Middle East in the Global Scout Network, Johannes Sobotzki, thinks, according to a statement sent to Rigzone.

“Based on Erdogan’s nationalistic agenda, Türkiye’s national oil company TPAO has significantly ramped up exploration activities over the last few years, including the purchase of four drillships,” Sobotzki told Rigzone.

“This has been somewhat successful, leading in 2020 to the discovery of the Sakarya gas field (>14 trillion cubic feet) in the Black Sea and to the recent announcement of a one billion barrels of oil (in-place) onshore discovery in southeast Türkiye,” he added.

“For 2023, TPAO is planning to drill more than 200 wells,” he continued.

Sobotzki told Rigzone that the aim is to become less reliant on energy imports and reduce the trade deficit.

“At present Türkiye relies heavily on gas imports from Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia,” he said.

“Greater energy independence would also allow Erdogan to leverage its position as an intermediary for gas being transported through Türkiye to Europe,” Sobotzki added.

At the South Gas Corridor 9th Advisory Board Meeting held in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku back in February, Türkiye’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said the country is open to cooperation for the expansion of gas supplies via the Southern Gas Corridor to allow greater supply security to the European Union, a statement posted on Türkiye’s energy ministry website highlighted.

During a speech in Baku, Donmez said Türkiye offers the most suitable route and the most reliable port for increasing supply security to the EU, the statement pointed out.

“He urged for more cooperation in the face of the energy and climate crises and amid the transition to green energy,” the energy ministry noted in the statement.

“To this end, he said that Turkey is open to cooperation and partnerships to transform the Southern Gas Corridor, the natural gas route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe, into a corridor where green energy can be transported,” the ministry added.

“Currently, negotiations are ongoing to increase the capacity of the corridor to incorporate new energy markets and resources to allow this green energy transformation,” the ministry continued.

‘Gigantic’ Discovery

In a statement posted on its website last month, TPAO announced that it had made a “gigantic” discovery of one billion barrels of oil in place in the exploration well Şehit Aybüke Yalçın-1 in the frontier Cudi-Gabar Area.

The Şehit Aybüke Yalçın-1 well was drilled 20 kilometers northwest of Cizre and 7km northeast of the Şehit Esma Çevik field, which TPAO noted produces approximately 10,000 barrels per day. The company revealed that the well was drilled to 2,771 meters of total depth and encountered more than 162 meters of light oil-bearing reservoir. The find represents the largest oil discovery onshore in Turkey, TPAO noted in the statement.  

“This exploration success is expected to give a major boost to Şırnak’s economic growth in the coming decades and to help achieving Türkiye’s objective of energy independence,” the company said in the announcement.

“This is the largest onshore discovery in Türkiye and gives TPAO a chance to build a new regional office in Şırnak,” Melih Han Bilgin, TPAO’s Chairman and CEO, said in a company statement.

“Developing Şehit Aybüke Yalçın and Şehit Esma Çevik with further discoveries will not only channel capital to stimulate economy in Şırnak, but also let TPAO built a state of the art oil refinery to unlock the potential in the region including the fields in neighboring countries,” he added.

“TPAO will drill back to back appraisal wells and conduct well tests to construct the full-field development plan until the end of 2023,” he continued.

TPAO was established in order to perform hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production, refinery, and marketing activities on behalf of the Turkish Republic with the law 6327 in 1954, the company’s website shows.

It continued exploration, production, refining, marketing, and transportation activities until 1983 as an integrated oil company and has been acting as a state owned exploration and production oil company since legal regulations made in 1983 and some other more recent changes, the site notes.

President Sworn In

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was sworn in recently at the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT), the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye website showed. He was re-elected President in the elections on May 28 with 52.18 per cent of the votes, the site highlighted.

“Welcomed with a military ceremony by Acting GNAT Speaker Devlet Bahçeli upon his arrival at the parliament, President Erdoğan inspected the Presidential Guard of Honor and proceeded to the General Assembly Hall with his wife, First Lady Emine Erdoğan, through the Gate of Honor,” the website noted in a statement posted on June 3.

“Upon his arrival at the General Assembly Hall, President Erdoğan was welcomed with standing ovation by MPs and other invitees. Acting Speaker Bahçeli presented his certificate of election to President Erdoğan,” it added.

President Erdoğan took oath under Article 103 of the Constitution, the site highlighted, adding that afterwards, Erdoğan, MPs, and invitees sung the Turkish national anthem, the Independence March.

In a statement posted on the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye website on May 28, Erdoğan was quoted as saying, “the winner of both the May 14 election and the May 28 election is the whole of our 85 million citizens”.

“We had said that we would win in such a manner that no one would lose. Accordingly, the only winner today is Türkiye,” he added, the statement showed.

“I would like to thank each and every member of our nation who once again gave us the responsibility to govern the country for the next five years with the choice they made. We will inshallah be worthy of your trust, as we have done over the past 21 years,” Erdoğan continued, according to the statement.

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