| Title | Multiple License Holders in the Same Area: An Expected Risk to Geothermal Development in Turkey |
|---|---|
| Authors | Omer Inanc TUREYEN, Abdurrahman SATMAN |
| Year | 2013 |
| Conference | Stanford Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | Unitization, Multiple license |
| Abstract | Nearly 300 geothermal resource areas have been identified in Turkey. The commercial development of the geothermal power and direct use has led to installations of over 110 MWe of power plants and 2100 MWt of direct use systems. Most of this development has occurred in recent years. In the last four years, MTA, the Mineral Research and Exploration General Directorate, has held several auctions of geothermal licenses as part of an effort to engage private companies in the development of Turkey’s geothermal resources. MTA offered about 150 geothermal licenses in areas where some exploration work has been done. The fields offered have different resource characteristics. Several of the geothermal resources initially investigated by MTA are now producing power. Majority of the licenses and thus resources are offered to the private sector and/or local entities such as municipalities for continued development. Most of these fields are poorly understood geothermal areas with limited information about resources. One serious risk involved in the adequate and sustainable development of these resources originates from multiple license holders in the same area. There are often several license holders for a given resource area. This situation leads to the potential risk of offset production and interference effects between adjacent developments using the same resource. The current regulatory environment has led to fragmented ownership of geothermal resource rights creating legal entanglements and potential resource sustainability issues. A well known approach for the multiple license holders problem is unitization. Unitization, in simple wording, is the unit based operation of a geothermal resource by consolidating or merging the entire field or a substantial part of it as a single entity and designating one or more of the parties as operator. A generally acceptable rule is that a geothermal lease is indivisible by its nature. Thus, production from any part of a unit perpetuates all leases within the unit. The present paper outlines the importance of unitization on the geothermal resource development. The lumped parameter modeling of a hypothetical geothermal field is discussed for better understanding the reservoir performance in terms of pressure and temperature and to demonstrate the interference effects when more than one share holders tap the the same reservoir. The results help to appreciate the problems of having multiple license holders in the same area which is something expected to occur in some geothermal fields in Turkey in near future. The need for unitization in the exploitation of geothermal resources is a matter of growing importance and will be of serious concern in Turkey. |