Canadian energy company Valeura Energy has drilled a second well to appraise its 2017 Yamalık-1 discovery in the Thrace basin of northwestern Turkey, the company announced Thursday.

The company started drilling the Devepınar-1 well, located around 20 kilometers west of the first appraisal well, İnanlı-1, which awaits testing. The Canadian company said the new well will test the lateral extent of the basin-centered gas accumulation play to the western side of the basin."Given the success of İnanlı-1 in demonstrating the presence of overpressured gas down to approximately 4,900 meters, Devepınar-1 is currently planned to focus on the most promising intervals, which are shallower," the company said. Well drilling is planned to 4,300 meters and will take approximately 80 days.

Valeura is the operator with a 31.5 percent working interest in deep rights of the West Thrace exploration license. Norway's Equinor holds a 50 percent stake and Pinnacle Turkey holds the remaining 18.5 percent.

"Devepınar-1 is an important appraisal well for the play and will help to indicate the lateral extent. Success here would validate our thesis that the Basin Centered Gas Accumulation (BCGA) is pervasive across the majority of our acreage," said Sean Guest, the president and CEO of Valeura.

In late January, Valeura reported that findings from the İnanlı-1 test well resulted in increased confidence in the area's potential for gas fracking. Valeura said that along with their Norwegian partner Equinor, they successfully finished drilling and logging the Inanli-1 appraisal well. "These results further support the interpretation of a basin-centered gas accumulation in the Thrace Basin," Guest said at the time. The company has officially detailed a large potential gas resource in western Turkey.