General View of Oil Exploration-Production Sector in Turkey as a Field of Investment and Its Contribution to Economy

Abstract

Following 1963 when development plans first came to the agenda, unfortunately petroleum sector is not even mentioned in 1, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII. Development Plans. The sector is considered as a sub title of mining sector. This situation is a clear indication of viewing petroleum sector which plays an important role in the development of our country. [8] Recognition of the sector has started to be exercised with market laws enacted in 2001 and 2003; first market laws were enacted and sector is identified, and the remaining exploration and production sector has continued in its former position. It is necessary to view the subject in two main axes when examining the activities of exploration and production sector. First is the investments of the licensee which we call the owner of petroleum right, that is, the capital owner. The second is the activities of those producing the services within the licenses, that is, the activities of companies providing technical services. In this paper, 1. Structural changes, status of legislation, breakdown of the activities and the amounts of investments made in the scope of Foreign Direct Investor (FDI) from the point of domestic and foreign countries as of December 2009 in USD currency is examined within the section of historical processes of 1926-2010. 2. Contribution of the investments in the oil exploration and production sector to the country’s economy, comparison of the public and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) from the point of investments, detailed activities and estimations against these investments, and as a result, reserves which are the assets, and production quantities of the actors of sector are put forth. 3. The factors which influence the investment activities, the reasons of insufficient investment in the sector, the structures and activities of companies operating depending on the competitive power of the sector are assessed concerning the status of the sector and the basins in our country for investment are determined. 4. Identifications and proposals that our country is not sufficiently explored, that there are still unexplored basins, that reserve quantity of 33 identified basins in our country may be around a magnitude of billion barrels, investment amount in 500 licensing for this purpose may sum up to about 20 billion dollars, the way of meeting such an amount as well as the matter of increasing the investments in the sectors are put forth. As a result; it is aimed with this paper to put forth the reality of the necessity to make much more investment because the investments made up to now hasn’t reached the desired level yet.