Comparative Hydrocarbon Potential Analysis of Turkish Interior Basins and New Exploration Opportunities: A Critical Review and New Insights

Ozkan Huvaz and Hasan Sarikaya
Türkiye Petrolleri A.O. (TPAO), Ankara, Turkey

Although the interior basins of Turkey are bounded by giant oil producing basins of Iraq and gas fields of Iran from east and southeast, fast growing and developing Caspian hydrocarbon province from northeast, frontier Black Sea Basin from north and Syria from south, they still remained unexplored and keep their mystery for oil industry. Here, a comparative summary of the petroleum potential and hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Tuz Gölü, East Anatolian, Sivas, and Çankiri basins which are the most important interior basins of Turkey are evaluated and discussed using geological, seismic, geochemical, and petrophysical data, and quantitative basin models. The studied basins are classified and ranked according to their petroleum systems by assessing hydrocarbon expulsion efficiency of the present source rocks, quality of the available reservoir rocks, charge access of the identified traps, and effectiveness of the potential seal rocks. Probability of exploration success is calculated on the basis of minimum economics by the help of quantitative risk assessment analysis performed on the elements of the petroleum systems of the investigated basins. Among the others, the Sivas Basin is by far the most promising Turkish interior basin through the presence of multiple mature petroleum systems and high quality, porous reservoirs with secondary porosity. Lack of an organic matter rich source rock in the Çankiri Basin, overcompacted poor quality sandstone reservoirs of the Tuz Gölü Basin, insufficient source rock maturity despite the presence of good quality source rocks in the East Anatolian Basins can be considered as potential exploration risks.