Türkiye on Friday said its daily oil production in Şırnak, the southeastern province that had long been a victim of a heavy terrorist presence, has reached a fresh record, part of the country's efforts to curb its heavy external energy dependency.
The output in the southeastern Gabar mountain region has exceeded 35,000 barrels per day (bpd), the state oil company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) said.
"We broke the first record of 2024 in oil production at Gabar with 35,061 bpd," TPAO wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The production reached 25,000 bpd in October before increasing to 30,000 bpd last month.
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 last May, which the TPAO said boasted about 1 billion barrels and a market value of up to $80 billion.
According to TPAO, increased output originates from 28 operational wells, including newly drilled wells in the Gabar region.
TPAO reiterated the goal of nearly tripling the current production by the end of 2024.
"Our goal is to reach oil production of 100,000 bpd by the end of 2024. We surpassed the goals we have set, one by one, with the help of our nation, and we keep working relentlessly for Türkiye's energy independence," it said.
The announcement came a day after Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the output had reached around 33,000 bpd in 27 wells.
Türkiye has intensified its oil and gas exploration activities since 2020, with the Gabar region playing a significant role in these efforts.
The discovery of new reserves in the southeastern area has been instrumental in Türkiye's pursuit of reducing dependency on imported energy resources and in achieving this year's production target.
The 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.
In mid-2022, Türkiye also announced the discovery of $1 billion worth of oil reserves in the Çukurova field in southern Adana province.
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.
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 averaged 80,000 barrels last year, a figure that the country expects to increase to 200,000 in 2024.