Daily oil production in Şırnak, Türkiye's southeastern province that had long been a victim of a heavy terrorist presence, is on course to reach new peak by the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a senior official said Saturday.

The output in the southeastern Gabar mountain region is currently at around 37,000 barrels per day (bpd), Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said at an iftar, a fast-breaking dinner, in Istanbul.

"We will reach 40,000 barrels by the end of Ramadan. Our goal is 100,000 barrels by the end of the year," Bayraktar said.

The production gradually rose from 25,000 bpd in October to 30,000 bpd in December before reaching 35,000 this January.

"There is a billion barrels of oil here. We are producing rapidly," said Bayraktar, stressing that reaching the year-end target would double Türkiye's current production.

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 (TL 384.09 billion).

It was followed by the discovery of another reserve in the region last May, which the state oil company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) said boasted about 1 billion barrels and a market value of up to $80 billion.

Türkiye has intensified its oil and gas exploration activities since 2020, with the Gabar region playing a significant role in pursuit of reducing the country's heavy dependency on imported energy resources.

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 entirely 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 daily 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.

Black Sea gas field

Separately, Türkiye has been developing the 710 billion cubic meters (bcm) natural gas field in the Black Sea, which was gradually discovered in August 2020.

In April 2023, it started pumping gas from the Sakarya field into the national grid through a pipeline linked to an onshore processing facility. Türkiye will meet approximately 30% of its annual gas need once the Black Sea reaches total capacity.

Bayraktar said the current production from the field has reached 3.7 million cubic meters per day.

"This is just the beginning. We need to increase this production. We need to discover new fields. In 2024, we may announce new discoveries with new exploration and new wells," he noted.

Emphasizing the importance of energy security, Bayraktar said the government's first goal is to continuously meet Türkiye's increasing energy demand, cheaply and with high quality.

"Our second goal is, unfortunately, Türkiye's biggest problem in energy, which is dependency on imports. Türkiye imports two-thirds of the energy it consumes. We import almost all of our natural gas, 92% of our oil and 40% of our coal," said the minister.

"When you import such a large amount of energy, you pay in foreign currency."

Nuclear 'champions' league

Bayraktar also elaborated on the goals in nuclear energy, saying Türkiye needed to be in the "Champions League of energy."

"Since the 1950s, Türkiye has had nuclear goals. Under the leadership of our president, Türkiye has taken the most important steps in nuclear energy in the history of the republic," he noted.

Bayraktar said about 30,000 people are working at the site of Türkiye's first nuclear power plant in Mersin province on the southern Mediterranean coastline.

The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), built by Russia's state atomic energy company Rosatom, will boast four reactors and will supply 10% of Türkiye's electricity consumption, said the minister.

"We want to commission the first reactor this year. Many direct and indirect steps are being taken to prevent the construction of this plant. We are continuing with determination," said Bayraktar.

The plant will ultimately have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts. Estimated to cost around $20 billion, the NPP is expected to be fully operational by 2028. It is part of Türkiye's ambitious plan to triple its renewable energy capacity by 2053 as it strives to become a carbon-neutral economy.

The country's ultimate goal is to increase electricity production capacity from nuclear energy to 20 gigawatts, nearly four times what the Akkuyu plant could generate.

Türkiye has been holding talks with several countries, including Russia, about building a second power plant in the Black Sea city of Sinop.

Bayraktar has said Türkiye is in talks with China to build the country's third nuclear plant in Kırklareli province in the Thrace region. He said they hoped to finalize discussions and strike a deal on the plant's construction soon.

Among other efforts, Bayraktar underlined that Türkiye would soon become a country that produces energy using renewable, domestic resources and nuclear power.

"When we achieve these, Türkiye will truly make a revolution in energy and leap forward in energy, and these energy initiatives will directly impact the economy. We will be a Türkiye that has progressed much better in many areas."