Canada's Turkey-focused energy company Valeura announced Tuesday it started reservoir stimulation and testing operations on the İnanlı-1 appraisal well in the Thrace basin.

Valeura said that as of June 24, 2019, all the required completion and testing equipment was on the İnanlı-1 site and rigged up.

The company intends to test a minimum of four zones in the İnanlı-1 well.

Diagnostic fracture injection tests and extended leakoff test operations are scheduled to commence this week preceding the first reservoir stimulation, planned for next week.

"As is customary in multi-zone completions, the deepest zones will be evaluated first and then testing will progress up the well to shallower zones. Given the rock's natural compaction with depth, the deepest zones are expected to have the lowest porosity and permeability," Valeura explained.

According to the company, the stimulation program is designed to test "well-defined discrete intervals and in most cases only a single stage high-pressure stimulation is planned for each zone."

"I am very pleased to begin testing operations on İnanlı-1. With 11 vertical well penetrations into the over-pressured gas-bearing formations, we have built a strong understanding of the depth and breadth of the reservoir intervals and are now turning our attention toward understanding how the rocks will flow with fracture stimulation," said Sean Guest, president and CEO of Valeura Energy.

"This is an exciting time for Valeura and our shareholders as we begin to develop a picture of the commercial potential for our basin centered gas accumulation play by demonstrating both fluid characteristics and flow potential," he added.

Valeura Energy is a Canada-based public company engaged in the exploration, development and production of petroleum and natural gas in Turkey.

Since its establishment in 2010, the company holds interests in 20 production leases and exploration licenses in Turkey's Thrace basin.

Meanwhile, Turkish energy firm PALMET Enerji discussed the purchase of the gas that the Canadian company Valeura and Norwegian Equinor will produce in Thrace, according to a report by Turkish daily Habertürk. To that end, the Turkish company is also looking to buy Trakya Doğal Gaz Dağıtım A.Ş., a gas distribution company put on sale by the Zorlu Energy Group.