Ankara’s Black Sea gas discovery holds no scientific value yet - petroleum expert

Ankara’s Black Sea gas discovery announcement on some 320 billion cubic metres of natural gas reserves was rushed and holds no scientific value at this phase, the former head of Turkey's national oil company Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) and petroleum engineer Pamir Necdet Pamir told Sözcü newspaper on Sunday.

While the reserves are certainly good news for the country, Pamir told Sözcü columnist Aytunç Erkin, it is not in Turkey’s benefit to release non-scientific statements based on insufficient data on the discovery in the preliminary phase of drilling in a single well.

The discovery announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday is the largest of its kind in the Black Sea and is heralded by Ankara as being crucial in decreasing the country’s energy import dependency, which totalled  $41 billion last year.

Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said the discovery would "remove the current account deficit from the agenda’’ of the country.

The reserve is also said to be sufficient to cover seven years of the country’s energy needs.

Current statements on the discovery are speculative, the gas expert said, saying that Turkey has yet to “conduct long term flow testing in the wells or conduct pressure, volume, heat testing, which would determine the parameters in calculating the reserves, and determine the reservoir’s propulsion mechanisms.’’

“Discoveries in the Black or Mediterranean seas, which would help Turkey’s energy dependency would only make us happy,’’ Pamir said, “but it should not be expected for people to hold in regard statements that are not based in scientific methods and gloss over fundamental problems.’’