Turkey is still carrying out important work to discover natural resources such as gas and oil recently, and has begun to reap the fruits of its years-long efforts, as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Dönmez, stated that the oil reserves from exploration operations in the last three years have reached 223 million barrels of oil, thanks to the efforts In exploration work, this reserve is estimated at about 21 billion dollars in the current market, in addition to that this reserve can meet Turkey’s oil consumption for about 225 days.
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During the presentation of the ministry’s budget for the year 2023 before the Parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee, “Dönmez” stated that the domestic production of hydrocarbons rose to 65 thousand barrels, after it was 37 thousand barrels five years ago. Thus, the annual production amounts to 23.7 million barrels, and “Donmez” indicated that “ Turkish “TPAO” finished drilling 112 wells in 2021 and it aims to complete drilling 150 wells by the end of 2022. He also reminded of the discovery of oil reserves in “Cögorova”, which has a value of $800 million, stressing that the amount of oil transported through the “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan” line will increase. From 600 thousand barrels per day to one million barrels by the beginning of 2023.
Dönmez stressed that an agreement has been reached with natural gas exporting countries, led by Azerbaijan, in order to meet gas needs in the long term without interruption and at appropriate costs, as he said:
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“We have started working on providing more gas supplies to both Turkey and Europe from the Caspian Sea region, through the project to double the capacity of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline “TANAP”. We will also clarify the map that will be followed for the natural gas trade center that we plan to establish in Thrace by end of the year.”
In this context, Dönmez indicated that the Sakarya gas field will go down in history as the fastest project to develop offshore fields in the world from exploration to first production.
Regarding the quantities that will be produced, Dönmez continued, saying:
“Considering the production of natural gas in Turkey in 2021, our production of natural gas will reach, in the first stage, 10 million cubic meters, which is equivalent to ten times the old production, and it will reach 40 million cubic meters, which is equivalent to 40 times compared to the old production.”
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On the other hand, Dönmez stressed that the underground storage capacity in the Silivri and Tuzgolo facility will be increased to 10 billion cubic meters, and that there will be no problem with the security of natural gas supplies this winter.
Speaking about the growing concerns about the security of energy supplies, Dönmez said:
“We will share with the public the steps we will take to ensure the security of our supplies in the medium and long term through the Turkish National Energy Plan.”
Dönmez also noted that last year, support of one billion Turkish liras was provided to reduce the impact of citizens from the rise in energy prices to the lowest possible extent by deducting 50 percent of electricity prices and 75 percent of gas prices.
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“The support provided for natural gas has been included in the heating aid, and 3 billion TL will be allocated to help 4 million families annually.”
