Rock Solid Oil Hope for Turkey

Turkey finds eight bln tons of oil shale reserve. In general of the world, averagely 38 liters of oil can be obtained from a ton of oil shale. World's largest oil shale reserves are located in Wyoming, the U.S. which owns two thirds of world reserve. 60 liters of oil can be obtained from one tons of oil shale in U.S. reserves.After the Konya-Eregli and Nigde-Bor reserves are discovered, Turkey's oil shale reserve increased to 9.64 billion tons from 1.64 billion tons. There are varying classifications of oil shales depending on their mineral content, type of kerogen, age, depositional history, and organisms from which they are derived. The age of the oil shale deposits ranges from Cambrian to Tertiary age. Lithologies range from shales to marl and carbonate rocks, all of which form a mixture of tightly bound organic and inorganic materials
Mavi Boncuk |

MTA / Mineral Research & Exploration Directorate General of Turkey has found shale reserve for eight billion tons of oil in central Anatolia. (MTA) has found shale reserve for eight billion tons of oil in central Anatolia. Heating oil shale, which is a sedimentary rock, produces oil and natural gas. MTA found out that the shale in Konya-Eregli and Nigde-Bor basins could produce oil between 2.6 billion-8.3 billion barrels. Accordingly, its value was calculated as 218 billion-687 billion USD.

As of the foundation of MTA in 1935, 1.64 billion tons of oil shales were found in Beypazari (Ankara), Seyitomer (Kutahya), Hatildag, Himmetoglu, Mengen (Bolu), Ulukisla (Nigde), Bahcecik (Kocaeli), Burhaniye (Balikesir), Beydili (Ankara), Dodurga (Corum) and Celtek (Amasya) in Turkey.

Shales are considered as a bridge in transfer to hydrogen and renewable energy resources against a possible oil crisis expected in the world in a near future. The economic feasibility of shale oil extraction is highly dependent on the price of conventional oil; if the price of crude oil per barrel is less than the production price per barrel of shale oil, it is uneconomic.

In April 2010, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey have signed an agreement with leading firms for setting up a regional centre to help exploit vast oil shale deposits in the five countries. The coalition is a product of the Euro-Med meeting that was held at Egypt’s Sharm el sheikh resort in February 2009 under the motto of the “integration of the energy markets”. The signatories stood to gain from exchanging information with European countries with experience in this sphere particularly Estonia, a pioneer in the extraction of crude from oil shale. Jordan so far initialed agreements with Holland’s Royal Shell and an Estonian firm for the exploitation of the country’s oil shale reserves estimated at 40-70 billion tons.

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