Canada's Valeura to resume drilling in Turkey in 2022: CEO

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Valeura plans to resume drilling in 2022 with a new partner in Turkey's gas-rich Thrace Basin, Sean Guest, the CEO of Canadian energy company Valeura, the operator and main partner in the unconventional gas accumulation play, revealed.

Guest said that Valeura sold its conventional gas production in the Thrace Basin earlier in 2021 to a U.K.-based company, TBNG Limited, who are continuing operations in Tekirdag to supply gas as Valeura once did.

However, Valeura still holds all of the rights to the deep tight gas play, of which there are significant resources.

Despite production testing by Valeura, the company so far did not find a location that would yield sustainable commercial gas flow rates, which prompted partner Equinor to exit the project in early 2020.

Having spent well over $100 million on further drilling and testing, Valeura feels progress was made from the cumulative data to identify new drilling locations that promise to have a higher chance of success, Guest explained.

“From experience in North America, this type of new play in a basin can take up to 10 wells to fully understand and identify areas of the play that can yield commercial gas flow. We have mapped up our next drilling locations and are currently seeking a new partner to replace Equinor," he said.

The return to exploration in Turkey comes after many challenges with COVID-19 last year and with renewed interest in gas plays with very large potential, given the recent gas supply problems, and sharp gas price increases in Europe.

"Hopefully we will be back to drilling in 2022 with a new partner,” he said.

"We have always been excited about investments in Turkey and have found both the federal government and the regional governments very supportive of our projects. We also recognize the importance of having a large, domestic gas resource in Thrace to help Turkey manage the challenging gas import environment we are currently seeing," Guest noted.