Türkiye's national oil company, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), has signed a joint venture agreement with U.S. oil producers Continental Resources and TransAtlantic Petroleum to develop shale fields in the country’s southeastern Diyarbakır province, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on X on Wednesday.
"Today, our national company TPAO signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Continental Resources, one of the largest oil producers in the U.S., and TransAtlantic Petroleum, which has been operating in our country for 17 years, to develop our unconventional oil and gas resources in the Diyarbakır Basin," Bayraktar said.
"The project, which will be carried out with the most up-to-date environmental and technological practices, will also provide training for the local workforce and technical knowledge transfer," he added.
"This cooperation will contribute greatly to our goal of bringing Türkiye’s oil and gas resources to our economy. I hope that this agreement, which opens a new era in oil exploration in Türkiye, will be beneficial for all parties."
"With 57 years of exploration experience, we recognize significant opportunities for further development both in the U.S. and internationally," Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
"We see immense potential in Turkey's untapped resources and are excited to collaborate with TransAtlantic and Turkey Petroleum to explore and develop unconventional solutions that can unlock their full energy potential," he said.
Continental Resources is one of the largest oil producers in the U.S., and TransAtlantic Petroleum has been operating in Türkiye for 17 years.
Turkish Petroleum has been expanding its cooperation network as the company collaborated with Azerbaijan, Libya, Somalia and Russia, and the company's CEO Ahmet Türkoğlu signaled cooperation with Libya in January.
Türkiye is not a major oil and gas producer and largely relies on imports to cover its energy needs. Authorities have, however, stepped up exploration efforts in the past years, particularly on its northern Black Sea coast and the southeastern region.
Bayraktar, who is in Houston this week for the CERAWeek conference, met with top energy executives and his counterparts from Mexico, Egypt, and Libya.
In a statement on X, the minister said Türkiye and Egypt agreed to concretize their cooperation, especially in the natural gas field. Holding a meeting with Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi, he said they discussed the energy security issues of both countries and the region.
"We discussed strengthening cooperation between our two countries in the fields of natural gas and mining. We agreed to concretize our cooperation, especially in the natural gas field," he said.
