ANKARA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Nearly entirely dependent on foreign energy imports, Turkey has launched an oil and gas drill operation to meet growing needs and strive to become a global leader in drilling activities.
Turkey's first drilling vessel, named after Istanbul's conqueror Ottoman Sultan, Fatih Sultan Mehmet, sailed off last week to the Mediterranean to start the country's first deep-sea drilling operations.
Speaking at a ceremony organized for the occasion at the Marmara sea, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said that Turkey has started oil and gas exploration both in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean with a seismic vessel and the drillship Fatih.
The minister announced that negotiation is underway to purchase a second drilling ship to further energy explorations.
Some experts, however, are cautious on the success of the operation announced by the Ankara government, saying that drilling operations are costly and risky.
Turkish energy expert Necdet Pamir said that as a country dependent 94 percent on oil and 99 percent on natural gas imports, Turkey needs to explore uncharted regions of the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, but it is unrealistic to dismiss the current operations.
Turkey produces limited quantity of oil at Batman Province, located in the southeast, near the Syrian border.
Turkey's first drilling vessel Fatih is capable of drilling to a maximum depth of 40,000 feet. It is scheduled to conduct deep-sea drilling operations off Mediterranean shores of Antalya Province. The first drilling well will reach 2,600 meters in depth.
The project of the first ultra deep-sea drilling well was designed by Turkish engineers who will run the management of the operations, according to the energy ministry.
Pamir underlined that one single probing operation costs between 250-300 million U.S. dollars.
Nevertheless, Minister Albayrak stressed Turkey's ambition to become a global player in oil and gas drilling activities.
"We are witnessing a milestone in Turkish energy history," he said, explaining that "the dream of deep-sea drilling activities have not been accomplished since the 1970s" because of lack of trained staff and technologically adequate local machinery.
The minister emphasized that Turkey will broaden its deep-sea and land exploration and drilling operations for oil and gas as part of its National Energy and Mining Policy, announced in April 2017.
To decrease import dependency and cater to the growing needs of the market, the Turkish government has developed a national energy and mining strategy.
The strategy is based on three main pillars: localization, security of supply and predictability of market conditions with particular importance attached to regional infrastructural projects for diversification as a guiding element.
Turkey has also launched drilling of an oil well in eastern Turkey on the Iraqi border. According to energy ministry officials, technicians and engineers are collecting data by gravity surveys in a wide area covering Semdinli, Cizre in southeastern Turkey and Van and Siirt provinces in eastern Turkey.
The region has been the topic of energy discussions with its potential in underground resources for oil exploration and mining surveys. The drilling aims to reach 4,450 meters in depth and the results will be collected in the upcoming months.
