Türkiye said Monday that its daily oil production in the southeastern province of Şırnak, long a victim of a heavy terrorist presence, had reached a record level, adding to the country’s efforts to curb its heavy external energy dependency.
“Record oil production at (Mount) Gabar, 30,000 barrels per day,” the state oil company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The output increased from 25,000 barrels a day announced in October.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the discovery of an oil reserve in Şırnak province’s Mount Gabar in late December 2022. Erdoğan said the reserve contained an estimated 150 million barrels of oil valued at approximately $12 billion.
It was followed by the discovery of another reserve in the region this May, which the TPAO said boasted about 1 billion barrels and a market value of up to $80 billion.
Türkiye “reached a daily oil production of 30,000 barrels from 23 wells” in these two recently discovered fields in the Gabar Mountain region, the company said.
TPAO earlier said it aimed to increase the output to 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year. On Monday, it said the production was targeted to reach as high as 100,000 barrels per day in 2024.
The southeastern Şırnak province had long been a victim of PKK terrorist attacks and has suffered from underdevelopment for decades.
Years of counterterrorism operations have eventually enabled a major transformation of the region that is now home to one of the country’s most important oil reserves.
The discoveries in Gabar increased the country’s proven oil reserves to about 1.2 billion barrels. Türkiye is estimated to consume about 1 million barrels of oil a day.
These discoveries came just months after the country announced the discovery of $1 billion worth of oil reserves in the Çukurova field in southern Adana province.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek earlier said that oil production in Gabar alone would fulfill 10% of Türkiye’s domestic needs in 2024.
“This will lead to a permanent reduction in the current account deficit and expedite reserve accumulation. By 2026, the total oil production will meet 18% of our needs,” Şimşek said.
Türkiye is almost completely dependent on imports to cover its energy needs, which left it vulnerable to rising costs that surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Energy imports, which hold the biggest share in Türkiye’s purchases from abroad, dropped by about 30% in the first 11 months of the year to some $62.5 billion, according to official data.
The bill is expected to reach $69 billion at the end of the year, down from $97 billion in 2022, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said last week.
Türkiye’s crude oil production has risen gradually over recent years, reaching about 70,000 barrels per day in 2022. This compares to 65,000 barrels a day in 2021, 61,000 in 2020 and 57,000 in 2019.
The output is said to have averaged 80,000 barrels this year, a figure that the country expects to increase to 200,000 next year.
Read More: Türkiye’s oil output in once terror-ridden southeast hits fresh record