For horizontal drilling and fracking pioneer Harold Hamm, turning unconventional oil and gas resources into economic gold has made him both an industry icon and shale rock star. As founder and chairman of Okla. City-based Continental Resources, Hamm was the voice yesterday at CERAWeek warning U.S. oil production is starting to plateau. He’s also the face behind a new international opportunity to apply his company’s Midas touch outside its Anadarko, Bakken, and Permian successes.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest news from Continental, which has entered a JV with Türkiye Petroleum and TransAtlantic Petroleum to develop untapped, unconventional oil and gas resources in Turkey’s Diyarbakir and Thrace basins. Total recoverable reserves could mean 6 Bbbl of oil and up to 65 TCF of gas. That’s sweet sugar candy for a nation that looks to build an oil and gas economy to meet its substantial energy consumption and decrease dependency on energy imports costing an annual $40 billion. Turkey calls it a game changer. Hamm happened to write the book on that very subject.

For Continental, the JV is a landmark deal and its most significant international project ever. Whether this foretells future opportunities for independent oil and gas producers facing basin plateaus is something to watch. And we are.