Turkey's State Oil Company Joins Shell in Black Sea E&P Venture
Turkish energy company TPAO has signed up with Shell for the exploration of the Khan Tervel field, a promising formation off the coast of Bulgaria. The location has strong synergies for TPAO, and it aligns with Turkey's interest in securing its own energy resources at home and abroad.
The initial stage of the collaboration includes carrying out a 3D seismic survey of the formation, covering about 1,500 square miles of seabed. The firms have a five-year lease on the site for seismic work, and hope to follow the survey with an exploration well shortly after.
Shell secured a license to explore the Khan Tervel site in December 2024. TPAO brings its regional experience and relationships to the table, along with an in-house fleet of drillships and seismic survey vessels. The Turkish oil major is developing the neighboring Sakarya field, just on the other side of the Bulgarian-Turkish EEZ boundary, and its hope is that the success it has found at Sakarya can be replicated.
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"While establishing this partnership in a field outside our own maritime jurisdiction areas in the Black Sea, the experience we have gained at sea, our strong fleet of vessels, and our trained personnel have become one of the main pillars of this collaboration," said Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar.
Turkey is actively pursuing partnerships with Western oil majors to expand its presence abroad, and is taking ambitious steps on its own as well. It is about to kick off a much-anticipated drilling campaign off the central coast of Somalia, in waters that most independent companies would find too risky. As Turkey's state oil company, TPAO will benefit from a Turkish naval escort for its wholly-owned drillship throughout the Somali operation.