Turkey is on its path to becoming an oil and gas country

Türkiye Black Sea Oil and Gas Congress and Exhibition: 13-14 December 2023

The second Turkish Black Sea Oil and Gas Congress and Exhibition is being held in Istanbul on 13-14 December this year. With the natural gas and oil discoveries starting with the Sakarya Gas Field reserves, Turkey is strengthening its economy by supporting the capacity advantage it has gained in renewable energy, especially wind, with fossil fuel reserves. We held interviews with officials from the leading companies of the sector at the 2nd Turkey Black Sea Oil and Gas Congress and Exhibition, organized by Vostock Capital, sponsored by Turkish Petroleum, TNR Offshore, Encon International, Interwell and Gazprombank, and for which we became media partnership as Gazete Makina.

Overview of the 2nd Turkish Black Sea Oil and Gas Congress and Exhibition

The congress and exhibition, organized by Vostock Capital, hosts oil companies, oil refineries, oil processing facilities and petrochemical companies in Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Georgia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Poland, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Austria, Netherlands, Moldova, England, Cyprus, It hosts many national and international professionals from Serbia, Denmark, Kuwait, Oman, France, USA, India and Japan. Welcoming more than two hundred participants, the event was contributed  by Botaş International, Turkish Petroleum, Romanian Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Industry and Technology (Turkey), Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, General Directorate of Infrastructure Investments (Turkey), Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, BP Azerbaijan, Çalık Petrol Search Production Inc. .Ş, ADX Enerji Panonia, ATLI Enerji, Block Enerji, Ege Gaz, Kura Basin Operating Company (KBOC), Marsa Turkey B.V. Ankara Branch, NV TURKSE PERENCO, OMV Petrom SA, OMV Turkey, OYAK ENERJİ, Park Place Energy Turkey Limited, PETKİM PETROKİMYA HOLDİNG A.Ş., Petoil, Petrocas Energy Group, Petrogas Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Petrol Ofisi A.Ş. ., Reformation. Sasa Polyester Industry, SOCAR Storage, SOCAR Turkey Refinery and Petrochemical Business Unit, Star Refinery and Petrochemical Business Unit, TANAP Doğal Gaz İletim A.Ş., TRABZON LİMAN İŞLETMELERİ A.Ş., Transatlantik Petrol, TRANSGAZ, Tüpraş Batman Oil Refinery, Tüpraş Leading components and companies of the sector such as Izmir Petroleum Refinery, Tüpraş Kırıkkale Petroleum Refinery, TÜPRAŞ Turkey Petroleum Refineries, KazMunayGaz, Güney Yıldızı Petrol and ICGB AD are participating.

Among the speakers and guests of honor, the following names stand out:

Zühtü Batı, Deputy General Manager of Turkish Petroleum

İsmail Güneş, Head of Department, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Treasury and Finance

Çağlar Tabak, Head of Department, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure General Directorate of Infrastructure Investments, Directorate-

Pavel-Casian Nitulescu,  Foreign Affairs of the Romanian Ministry of Energy

Kenan Ekrem Kadioğlu, Marsa Turkey B.V. Ankara Branch General Manager

Arel Sayer, Director, Güney Yıldızı Petrol

Bayram Kara, General Manager and Board Member, Çalık Petrol Arama Üretim A.Ş.

Veli Ozan Ülker, Chairman and CEO, Petrogas Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

Cliff Isaak, General Manager, Shareholder, Kura Basin Operating Company

Daiske Harada, Director, Japan National Corporation for Oil, Gas and Metals

Murat Kalay, General Secretary, PETFORM

Georgios Satlas, Chief Executive Officer, ICGB AD

Cüneyt Sapçıoğlu, Vice President, Petoil Paul Haywood, Chief Executive Officer, Block Energy

Güven Kaya, Deputy General Manager, Sasa Polyester Sanayi

Afgan Guliyev, Project Director, SOCAR Türkiye Refinery and Petrochemical Business Unit

Nazım Abdullayev, Exploration Consultant, BP Azerbaijan.

The main sponsors of the congress are Turkish Petroleum, TNR OFFSHORE, Interwell, Encon Group and Gazprombank (JSC).

In the special exhibition area, where technical, technological and service solutions from industry leaders are exhibited, companies such as Teknik, Indunit, SMSL, WABAG Water Services SRL, Welltec A/S, Symoil TR Mühendislik ve Hizmetleri Limited Şirketi, LV Logistics have the opportunity to introduce their products and services to the participants.

We compiled the highlights of 2023 at the congress through interviews with people such as Roman Smaligin, Interwell Sales and Support Manager, Ahu Rezzan Eker, TNR OFFSHORE Foreign Trade Officer, Tolegen Sadvakassov, Welltec Business Development Manager, and Murat Kalay, PETFORM General Secretary.

Roman Smaligin: “Turkey has sufficient resources to develop oil investments with the income it has earned from green energy so far.”

Interwell Sales and Support Manager Roman Smaligin notes that Turkey was not an oil and gas country until a few years ago, but after the discoveries made last year, there has been a great development and the region has a bright future. Referring to the technical difficulties that may be experienced during the oil drilling phase, Smaligin said, “Drilling requires more investment. Investments in oil drilling are often cut due to investments in green energy, but we demand investment. Many standard fields are currently under development. For this reason, “We need more and more investment from Turkey,” he says.

Stating that he thinks Turkey is generally very strong in green energy with its geothermal and wind structure, Smaligin underlines that a balance is needed between standard oil and gas production and green energy production. “You cannot turn to 100% green at this stage,” says Smaligin, adding that Turkey has sufficient resources to develop oil investments with the income it has earned from green energy so far.

Roman Smaligin, Interwell

Ahu Rezzan Eker: “We are Turkey’s only DNV2.7-1 certified offshore container manufacturer”

TNR OFFSHORE Foreign Trade officer Ahu Rezzan Eker evaluated the oil and gas projects currently being carried out in Turkey from the perspective of his company and said, “The projects currently being carried out in terms of oil exploration and extraction are very strong and important projects for us and of course for Turkey. I think it is a great opportunity, especially for companies like us that are just starting out in the oil and gas exploration business. For example, we started to prove ourselves by entering the offshore market with the support of Turkish Petroleum for our projects. We are Turkey’s only DNV2.7-1 certified offshore container manufacturer. “Thanks to the effective work of Turkish Petroleum, we successfully went through the difficult certification process, received our appropriate certificates, and gradually began to consolidate our place in the offshore container market.”

Touching on the difficulties that TNR OFFSHORE currently faces in the industry, Eker underlines that they are currently the only offshore container manufacturer in Turkey and adds: “Since we are the only offshore container manufacturer in Turkey, we had a lot of difficulty in the first stage. Otherwise, we started our work by getting all the necessary support. The reason why we had difficulty was that our product and the certificates we needed to obtain had no counterpart in our country. “We went through the difficult certification stages and received our certificate.”

Stating that they are currently in the process of introducing TNR OFFSHORE to the world, Eker said, “We aim to introduce ourselves by participating in the world’s leading events. “We are trying to prove that we exist not only in Turkey but also in the world and that we can be together with big companies,” she adds and states that they need a little support.

Evaluating Turkey’s position in the changing oil and gas environment, Eker makes the following statements: “Of course, Turkey is making great efforts and achieving very successful works. “I think Turkey’s current trajectory, even though it’s struggling, is pretty good and I think it could be in really good places.”

Ahu Rezzan Eker, TNR Offshore

Tolegen Sadvakassov: “New oil and gas discoveries will activate Turkey in the drilling of high-pressure gas wells in the deep sea”

Business Development Manager and Completion Engineer Tolegen Sadvakassov from Welltec, a manufacturer of oil, natural gas and geothermal equipment, says that Turkey is one of the largest countries in the region and has high energy production potential at sea and on land. In particular, Sadvakassov said that new oil and gas discoveries will activate Turkey in terms of drilling high-pressure gas wells in the deep sea, and states that especially high-tech service companies will be involved in operations in Turkey.

Sadvakassov, who thinks that the main challenge in the oil and gas sectors for some countries due to the geopolitical situation in the world is logistics, said: “Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sell oil. But I think Turkey has a good geographical position to easily sell products all over the world. Another problem is that the development of many areas has stopped. They are getting old, production is slowly decreasing, and new discoveries are not that many. “Therefore, low production will be a big problem for the world in the future,” he adds.

Seeing Turkey’s future as bright in terms of oil and natural gas, Sadvakassov said, “More gas or oil fields similar to the Sakarya Gas Field Development Project may be discovered in the future. Thus, Türkiye will truly become an oil and gas country. Currently, oil and gas do not constitute the majority of Türkiye’s economy. You have other resources. Türkiye is mostly an industrial and tourism country. “Turkey’s economy will grow further with this additional input from oil and gas, that is, by providing money inflow to the economy,” he says.

Tolegen Sadvakassov, Welltec

Murat Kalay: “We have to establish a structure that includes futures transactions in the oil and natural gas pricing mechanism, is integrated with the international system, but of course the state never loses its control and social understanding.”

PETFORM Secretary General Murat Kalay, who attended the congress as a speaker, expressed his views on oil and natural gas projects in Turkey and its region as follows: “The Black Sea was a very ideal discovery in terms of its timing and its undisputed nature in that exclusive project. There are areas of this nature right next to us, in Bulgaria and Romania. The cooperation we talk about here will already develop. Because this discovery has the potential to open up space for many countries and investors. Of course, we are now spending all our strength, material and moral performance on the development of this field. Once things get back on track, I think it may be possible to conduct joint drilling in the medium-long term. In fact, I know that Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has received serious demands on this issue. However, you will appreciate that now that we have found this resource, we are trying to transform it to the benefit of the country with maximum performance.”

Referring to the main difficulties faced by the oil and natural gas industry, Kalay notes that, in fact, there has been a serious decrease in Turkey’s foreign dependency rate and adds, “However, especially offshore drilling has dynamics that include many factors such as high technology, high pressure, high temperature. That’s why there is inevitably a dependence on foreign sources in terms of equipment. Including engineering and design. However, we are in a position to use serious local materials, especially in the drilling we do on land. We have even built our own tower. Naturally, these will improve us significantly along with the acceleration of the sector. “We will observe this together.”

Stating that all this production is turning into an additional opportunity, Kalay adds, “Sometimes a company comes, makes a discovery, and the fate of a region or a country changes. So that’s how I see it. Especially in terms of exploration and production activity. It can and is being discussed politically. This is a very valuable discovery independent of politics. I hope the rest of this will be meaningful for our country and economy. It will solve a very serious problem regarding foreign dependency. “It will not solve it overnight, but thanks to our 10-year perspective, it will significantly relieve our economy.”

Murat Kalay, Petform