ISTANBUL - Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said on Tuesday that Turkey's dependence on oil would decrease soon, adding that Turkey would not be only an oil consumer, but oil producer country.
Addressing the news conference held in Ciragan Palace by Turkish Petroleum Inc. (TPAO) and BP Exploration company to give information about the oil searching activities carried out in the Black Sea, Guler said that the Norwegian-flagged seismic research ship ''Ramform Challenger'' was expected to come to Istanbul after two days.
''There is energy consumption equal to 80 million tones of oil in Turkey today. This will reach 300 million tons in 2020...As of today, we produce one third of it, but we are dependent on abroad by two-thirds...We must take measures, we must use our sources fully,'' said Guler.
Noting that they had important projects with BP, Guler stated that this was not only searching for oil in Eastern Black Sea, but it also included Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Shahdeniz projects. Guler stated that Turkey produced only two million tones of the 27 million tones of oil which Turkey consumed.
BP Turkey Chairman Tahir Uysal said in his part that seismic search study would give the opportunity to gather more detailed data in the Black Sea, adding that BP would continue to allocate money for searching oil in Black Sea.
Upon questions, BP Exploration Vice President Hug McDowell said that they thought there was an oil potential of 150,000 oil barrels on daily basis in Black Sea.
(Öª) 15.07.2003