Canada-based oil exploration firm Valeura Energy has announced that it has been awarded a new exploration licence, Banarli Licence 5104, on a 100 per cent working interest basis in the Thrace Basin of northwest Turkey
The Banarli Licence 5104 was awarded to Valeura Energy by the General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs Turkey, has a four-year initial term and covers an area of more than 479 sq km spread over 185 sections located near the centre and deepest part of the Thrace Basin.
The company said that the licence is ideally located to test for a potential basin-centre gas play and to explore for unconventional tight gas and shale gas in those areas where the Mezardere shale source rocks are at depths below 3,000 metres and may be at pressures and temperatures sufficient to create an active ‘kitchen’ for hydrocarbon generation.
It added that the overlying Ergene, Danismen and Osmancik formations, which were also deeply buried across the licence, may also be prospective for conventional gas exploration.
Under the Banarli licence terms, a well is required to be spud within the first year to keep the licence in good stead. Valeura Energy has plans to initially carry out a targeted 2D seismic program to complement the existing 2D seismic coverage on the licence.
The licence is unexplored with only two relatively shallow wells drilled, of which the latest, Karaca-1, was plugged and abandoned at a depth of 1,026 metres in November 2010.
