The oil discovery that made Turkey regain the strength was announced on Thursday by President Tayyip Erdoğan. The country found three new onshore wells in the last month that can strengthen the country economically.
The two wells in the southeastern Diyarbakır province and at a third site in the northwestern area of Kırklareli have the resources. These wells will provide a daily output of 6,800 barrels of oil additionally.
In the last year, the country also found the largest natural gas resource. The discovery was 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Tuna-1 well in the Sakarya gas field, located about 185 kilometers north of Turkey’s Black Sea coast. By 2023, the country plans to connect the gas to the nation’s transmission system and expects an annual gas flow of 5-10 bcm. The gas flow will see a gradual increase by 2025, where the production reaches around 15 bcm. The expected output will be providing adequate supply for 30% demand of the nation’s annual gas.
As per the statistics, the oil production of Turkey stood at 61,757 billion barrels per day in 2020. With the restrictions due to the pandemic to curb the virus spread that curtailed the movements, the demand for oil products dropped, which diminished the overall oil import volume of the country.
As per Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA), the oil imports by Turkey were down by 24.7 percent to 2.65 million tonnes in January 2021. Similarly, the highest import volume category – the crude oil imports was dropped by 31.6 percent to 1.83 million tonnes.
The highest volumes in imports were from Russia, Iraq, and Kazakstan at 688,866 tonnes, 604,496 tonnes, and 289,589 tonnes.
There was a decrease in oil, gas, and diesel production- the oil refinery showed a reduction by 20.1 percent to 2.30 million tonnes, gas output was dropped by nearly 34.7 percent to 270,395 tonnes, and diesel production was decreased by percent to 1.18 million tones in January.
The country is rebounding now, with economic growth assessed at 6.7 % in the first quarter this year. The industrial lout put of the nation jumped 12.3% year on year in the same period. In the last year, only a few global economies rose, and Turkey grew in its economy by 1.8%.
