Late on Wednesday, Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) announced that it had discovered 1 billion barrels of oil in a field in the southeastern province of Sirnak, marking the biggest onshore oil discovery in Turkey.
The well, named Sehit Aybuke Yalcin-1, is located 20 kilometres northwest of Cizre town and has been drilled to a depth of 2,771 metres, where TPAO found a light oil-bearing reservoir of more than 162 metres, with further prospects still to be explored in the area.
Currently, the well produces around 10,000 barrels of oil per day. TPAO aims to drill appraisal wells in quick succession and complete the full field development plan by the end of this year, with a production target of 100,000 barrels per day, which would more than double Turkey’s current oil production.
Turkey imports almost all of its energy needs, as it has little oil and gas, and consumed 246 million barrels of imported crude oil in 2022, as well as 29 million barrels of locally produced crude oil, according to official data.
Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran, as well as liquefied natural gas imports, are among the sources of Turkey’s imported energy, and Ankara is also developing a 710 billion cubic-metre natural gas field in the Black Sea for production.
