Zeynep Tor has been with the <a href="https://turkishlawblog.com/contributors/detail/herguner-bilgen-ucer-attorney-partnership" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(3, 102, 132);">Firm</a> since 2007, where she has worked in all areas of corporate and commercial law.&nbsp;She has garnered experience, especially in mergers &amp; acquisitions and joint ventures in regulated sectors covering a wide range of sectors including e-commerce, energy, and lottery. She has also assisted our clients in long term energy infrastructure projects with her unique knowledge of the one-of-a-kind intergovernmental agreement model. Zeynep Tor is highly praised for her command of the sectoral nuances and priorities, and her fast coordination and effective communication skills play a key role in multi-party/jurisdictional and complex transactions. Her communication capabilities and sectoral knowledge allow her to efficiently reflect the clients’ priorities in the legal documentation.Tor has recently assumed a lead role in an international hospitality and real estate development project abroad where our firm acted as the lead legal coordinator. Practice Areas &amp; Work DepartmentMergers &amp; AcquisitionsReal EstateInfrastructure &amp; Project FinanceCorporate Support LanguagesEnglish MembershipsInternational Law Institute (ILI), Istanbul ChapterTWEA (Turkish Wind Energy Association)

Since 1989, Hergüner has been recrafting the
Turkish law firm model along modern corporate standards, while maintaining the
personal attention that its clients have come to expect. Its size and expertise
make it one of the few truly full-service independent Turkish law firms with a
global reach, equally at home in the role of primary counsel in multinational
transactions and local counsel to foreign and domestic clients. The firm’s
expertise and institutional knowledge enable it to go beyond simple lawyering
and develop creative business-oriented solutions to client needs. It
accomplishes this by putting clients first and becoming intimately acquainted
with all aspects of their business and legal needs. The firm’s reputation for
innovation goes back almost three decades, having drafted many
first-of-their-kind agreements in cross-border transactions that continue to be
used as model agreements in the market today. Hergüner not only provides expert
legal counsel to its clients but also serves as a trusted advisor for them and
provides premium legal advice within a commercial context.The Hergüner team is currently comprised of
approximately 90 attorneys, most of whom have completed their education abroad,
and approximately 40 support staff, making it one of the largest law firms in
Turkey. The firm’s key practice areas include M&amp;A, Corporate Support,
Banking and Finance, Infrastructure &amp; Project Finance, Competition, Real
Estate, IP, Dispute Resolution, Data Protection, Employment &amp; Labor, and
Energy &amp; National Resources.

Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership

Partner

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="color: rgb(3, 102, 132);">Trends and Developments&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Advancing Türkiye in the Energy Market&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Türkiye relies on imported resources to meet its
primary energy demand, despite being located
adjacent to approximately 60% of the world’s
entire proven oil and natural gas reserves. At
the same time, since 2000, Türkiye has been the
second-largest economy after China in terms of
increase in natural gas and electricity demand.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Türkiye’s energy strategy over the past few years
has been shaped around diversifying resource
availability in an attempt to strengthen its energy
security. In conjunction with this objective, Türkiye has focused on increasing the capacity of its
transmission, distribution, and storage facilities,
establishing new floating storage regasification
units (FSRU), and prioritising cross-border crude
oil and natural gas pipeline projects such as the
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and TurkStream natural gas pipeline coupled with the
opening of Silivri Natural Gas Storage. These are
projects that complement Türkiye’s policy vision
of becoming an energy hub, bridging natural gas
from the Caspian Basin, Central Asia, the Middle
East, Iran, and the Eastern Mediterranean Basin
to Europe.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As per the strategic plan for 2019–23 announced
by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR), Türkiye also envisions becoming
an energy trade centre as opposed to simply
remaining a bridge or crossroads of converging
energy markets. The Energy Markets Operator
Company of Türkiye (EPİAŞ) launched its natural
gas futures trading platform on 1 October 2021,
building on its know-how and experience as an
operator of natural gas and power exchanges.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Türkiye starting to benefit from its Black Sea
natural gas resources&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Türkiye is also looking to improve its position
as an energy producer and investing in offshore&nbsp;exploration, an ambition that has been rewarded
by the discovery of natural gas in the Black Sea.
As Türkiye’s oil and natural gas demand is met
through imports, the country has focused on oil
and natural gas exploration activities to increase
domestic production.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Türkiye announced that it will provide state
support for a large scale project to develop the
Sakarya natural gas field it discovered in the
Black Sea. The investment value of the Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) project is estimated at
TRY145.1 billion and the project duration is 11
years. Government support for the development of the gas field will include a customs duty
exemption, VAT exemption, and a tax reduction.
The project is expected to increase its annual
production capacity to 14 billion cubic metres
(bcm) with investments over the next 10 years.
The maximum annual production from the field
is expected to meet about 30% of the country’s
annual gas consumption.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In 2023, Türkiye started to deliver the country’s
first natural gas to an onshore plant from the
reserve discovered in the Black Sea. The natural
gas is brought to the Filyos Processing Plant via
a 170-kilometre pipeline and will be connected
to the national system with pipes.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The goal is to start daily production with ten
million cubic metres (mcm). Production in the
field will be increased up to 40 mcm within three
years. The natural gas extraction process will
proceed in phases. Five of the ten wells planned
within the scope of Phase-1 have been activated, and the remaining five wells will be activated
at the end of September 2023. Phase-2 production is expected to start in 2026, and Phase-3 is
expected to start in 2028 with the inclusion of
the Amasra Field. Daily natural gas production
will be ten mcm in Phase-1, reaching 40 mcm in&nbsp;Phase-2, and 60 mcm in Phase-3. In Phase-2, it
is aimed to meet the entire need of residences
located in Türkiye with domestic natural gas.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Currently, the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) imports natural gas to Türkiye
through two methods. Liquefied natural gas
(LNG) is imported from Algeria and Nigeria and
natural gas is imported from Russia, Azerbaijan,
and Iran through pipelines within the framework
of long-term contracts. BOTAŞ also imports spot
LNG from the US and Qatar&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Türkiye continues to expand its floating
storage and regasification units&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Ertuğrul Gazi, Türkiye’s first publicly owned
FSRU, delivered approximately 2.1 bcm of gas
to the national transmission grid. The first LNG
floating ship had a storage capacity of 139,000
cubic metres and could supply 14 mcm of gas
per day to the Turkish natural gas grid. Türkiye is
getting ready to integrate its third FSRU in 2023.
The ship, Vasant, which will operate at the facility, is en route to its final destination of Saros,
which is planned to commission the new FSRU
LNG import terminal in north-western Türkiye in
addition to the two existing FSRU import terminals in İzmir and Hatay.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Türkiye will become a natural gas hub&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In late 2022, Türkiye expanded its Silivri Gas Storage Facility increasing the storage to 4.6 bcm of
gas at the Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, up
from an earlier capacity of 3.2 billion. The site’s
daily withdrawal capacity has increased from 28
mcm to 75 million. With the completion of the
expansion works, the Silivri Natural Gas Storage
Capacity has become the largest underground
gas storage facility in Europe.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The sanctions against Russia resulted in Türkiye playing a pivotal role in the transportation&nbsp;of natural gas. The development of trans-shipment and exchange terminals for Russian gas
has been proposed, potentially making Türkiye
a significant centre for the sale of Russian gas
to third countries. Türkiye has extensive LNG
import infrastructure and believes it can leverage
its existing and new trade relations to become a
natural gas hub.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">BOTAŞ and its Bulgarian counterpart, Bulgargaz, began the first gas shipment from Türkiye
to Bulgaria under a 13-year agreement on April
2023. The general manager of BOTAŞ explained
that Türkiye’s daily LNG gasification capacity is
161 mcm and is planned to be further expanded.
This gas infrastructure will benefit neighbouring
Bulgaria and other European countries, processing over 50 bcm per year.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Oil and gas discoveries continue&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">While Türkiye is advancing in energy infrastructure, it has increased its search both offshore and
onshore. In early May 2023, Türkiye announced
the discovery of one billion barrels of oil in a field
located in the southeast province of Şırnak, the
largest onshore oil find in the country. The stateowned company, TPAO, has drilled 2,771 metres
deep so far and found an oil-bearing reservoir
over 162 metres in thickness, with further prospects to be explored in the area. The well, called
Martyr Aybüke Yalçın-1 and located 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the north-west of Cizre town,
currently produces approximately 10,000 barrels
of oil per day. This was the second discovery of
oil since December 2022, when Türkiye found
an oil reservoir with a production capacity of 150
million barrels in the south-east’s Mount Gabar
area. After these recent discoveries, the production target was set for 100,000 barrels per day,
which doubles Türkiye’s existing oil production.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">On the other hand, TPAO announced the discovery of a potential natural gas field in the South
Akçakoca Sub-Basin (SASB) area off the shore
of the Turkish Black Sea. The SASB gas field
encompasses a total licence area of 12,385 hectares. Natural gas was found in the field in the
sandstone reservoirs lying at a depth of between
1,100 and 1,800 metres.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">&lt;strong style="">Conclusion&lt;/strong>&lt;/span>&lt;/h2>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;">&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">While Türkiye has experienced its share of problems following the global lockdowns in response
to the fight against COVID-19 and the global
tensions caused by the invasion of Ukraine, the
energy market is, and will remain, a top priority from Türkiye’s strategic perspective. Considering the country’s potential for growth, it is
expected that Türkiye’s energy use will grow by
50% over the next decade. The Turkish market
is eager and eligible for new investments that
will feed into the country’s increasing energy
demand. This need, coupled with the Turkish
government’s appetite for converting the country into an energy hub, will accelerate developments in the oil and gas sector in Türkiye.&lt;/span>&lt;/p>&lt;hr>&lt;p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&lt;span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*&nbsp;&lt;/span>&lt;em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">First published by Chambers and Partners.&lt;/em>&lt;/p>&lt;p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&lt;span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(5, 5, 5);">&lt;span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px;">** The original version of the Article can be found at&lt;span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;&lt;/span>&lt;/span>&lt;span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px;">&lt;a href="https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/D4D1FAQEnD_PMMJGfXg/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/0/1694503256683?e=1695254400&amp;v=beta&amp;t=ltqGzondQyUl1FDXDjxAiyDFEc_5UqFz0xSeM5ZMyGk" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background: transparent; color: rgb(3, 102, 132);">this link&lt;/a>&lt;/span>&lt;/span>&lt;/p>

While Türkiye has experienced its share of problems following the global lockdowns in response to the fight against COVID-19 and the global tensions caused by the invasion of Ukraine, the energy market is, and will remain, a top priority from Türkiye’s strategic perspective. Considering the country’s potential for growth, it is expected that Türkiye’s energy use will grow by 50% over the next decade. The Turkish market is eager and eligible for new investments that will feed into the country’s increasing energy demand. This need, coupled with the Turkish government’s appetite for converting the country into an energy hub, will accelerate developments in the oil and gas sector in Türkiye.

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 4

Applications for downstream oil and natural gas licences can only be filed by Turkish companies. That said, there is no limitation that prevents a Turkish licensee company from being wholly or partly owned by foreign individuals and/or legal entities.

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 3

According to the Petroleum Market Law and the Natural Gas Market Law, a licence is required in order to perform market activities regulated under such legislation. Licence applications are made to EMRA. Licensees are entitled to benefit from the expropriation process if required by the licensed activities. Please see 3.11 Third-Party Access to Infrastructure for details on the legal framework for expropriation.

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 2

Under the Turkish Petroleum Law No 6491, the term “petroleum” includes crude oil and natural gas. Petroleum resources in Türkiye are owned by, and are at the disposal of, the state. However, upstream interests are granted by way of licences with definite terms. In such cases, exploration licence and production lease holders must pay the state a one-eighth share (12.5%) as royalty for petroleum produced from an exploration or production area.

Lawyers Zeynep Tor

Zeynep Tor

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 4

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 3

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 2

Energy: Oil & Gas 2023 - Part 1