Black Sea-focused oil and gas company Trillion Energy has said it will drill deeper wells at its SASB gas field, encouraged by the recently announced giant deepwater gas find by the Turkish national oil and gas company TPAO, some 100 kilometers to the north.
As reported earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Friday said that TPAO's had Fatih drillship discovered 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas at the Tuna-1 well in the Black Sea.
The discovery has been described as Turkey's largest offshore gas find ever, and potentially transformational for the country's economy.
Now, Trillion Energy International, a Canada-based operator of the South Akcakoca Sub- Basin (“SASB”) gas field in the Turkish Black Sea, hopes it can replicate TPAO's Tuna-1 success. Worth noting, TPAO is Trillion's partner in SASB.
"The new Tuna-1 gas discovery opens new possibilities for exploration of deeper horizons on the SASB Gas Field," Trillion Energy said.
Trillion Energy's President & CEO, Dr. Art Halleran said: “In light of the recent discovery by our partner TPAO and their proof of massive volumes of natural gas generation from source rocks in the Western Black Sea sedimentary basin the same basin SASB is contained within, we plan to evaluate the geological trends in deeper zones of SASB to identify prospects to drill and test for gas. Seismic has already identified anomalies warranting further assessment where we plan on developing a geological model for potential undiscovered deep gas. Our license rights extend deeper into the SASB Field than what we have ever drilled to date.”
The Tuna-1 well was drilled with total well depth planned of 4,525 meters where 100 meters of pay was encountered at a total depth of 3,520 meters. It is expected that an additional 1,000 meters will be drilled to assess two additional structures, Trillion Energy said.
"Turkish officials estimated 9 TCF based on the current drilling, with area (250 km2), thickness (500 meters), where log and test results were calculated for 11 TCF of reserves. Turkish officials announced they believe this discovery is a portion of a giant gas field and they will continue to drill to delineate the full extent to the gas field. Certain media reports cite an expected 26 trillion cubic feet or 800 billion cubic meters gas," the company said.
Currently, almost all Turkish gas blocks in the Black Sea are solely owned by TPAO, with the exception of the SASB gas field which is owned 49% by Trillion Energy, with TPAO owning the remaining 51%. Trillion’s SASB gas field license area is approximately 100 km south of the Tuna-1 well.
"Historically, US$608 million has been invested to date for the development of the SASB fields, where gas was discovered at about 1,200 meters depth over a decade ago. SASB has currently produced over 41 BCF of natural gas to date," the company said.