TURKEY - Toreador Operations.

The eight shallow-water blocks in the western section of the Black Sea have proved to be rich in natural gas. TPAO in June 2005 received a major boost with the discovery of a commercial gas field there. The licence there covering nearly 4,000 sq km is operated by Toreador Resources of Texas through its local unit called Madison Oil. The firm then revealed its Akkaya-1 well as its second gas discovery, news which was sufficient to send Toreador's shares up by 23.5% to close at US$21.48 on the Nasdaq.

The well is productive from the Eocene Kusuri formation, a Tertiary zone which also flowed gas in the Ayazli-1 just 7 km to the north-west and in the nearby Akcakoca-1 well drilled by TPAO in 1976. Madison estimated 47m of net pay. The Akkaya-1 well was temporarily suspended as further development activity in the South Akcakoca sub-basin continued thereafter. The rig, "Prometheus" J/U, was moved to a new location which is an immediate offset to the Ayazli-1. The results of Akkaya-1 backed Toreador's previous estimate of reserves in South Akcakoca of about 350 BCF of gas.

Ayazli-1 was completed in September 2004 after testing a combined 15 MCF/d flow from four zones. Toreador holds a 36.75% interest in this licence and is partnered by Stratic of Canada (12.25%) and TPAO (51%).

Toreador has the option to drill five wells - in addition to its three-well programme - using the same rig. It has identified six prospects with reserve potential per prospect ranging from 100 BCF to 1 TCF.

Toreador's eight tracts are grouped into Blocks 3498 to 3505, in District II. Akkaya-1 is in Block 3500, located around 11 km east of Ayazli-1 well in which multiple tests were conducted at depths of 647-967 metres. Madison Oil is still drilling in the Akcakoca area.

Madison in early 2006 said tests had confirmed the presence of commercial quantities of natural gas in a new location east of the Ayazli structure, called Dogu Ayazli-1 which was to be completed as a gas producer. In a statement Stratic Energy in late February said: "Two of the deeper sands were tested at an initial production rate of about 7.3 MCF/d of dry gas on a 32/64-inch choke, at a flowing well-head pressure of about 1150 pounds per square inch". The new well was to be brought on stream along with others in the first phase of gas production from the South Akcakoca sub-basin in the second half of 2006.

Other firms in Turkey have included Texaco and Unocal (now both part of Chevron), Canada's Asamera and Denison Mines. Unocal joined TPAO in exploring for geothermal energy in eastern Turkey, where the state firm has 30% in a $300m venture.

TPAO has been trying to start exploring for oil and gas along Turkey's Mediterranean coast. But it has been constrained by complex territorial disputes over the Aegean Sea and islands between Turkey and Greece.

BP in 2000 began drilling on a Mediterranean block off Mersin and Hatay, the latter having been the subject of a territorial claim by Syria. BP's Amoco, holding the block with TPAO since the early 1990s, did seismic work in the area in 1998. Under a JV deal signed on July 19, 2000, TPAO and El Paso of the US began in the following month seismic work for the Iskenderun and Mersin bays, in the East Mediterranean.