ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister on Monday said that the government plans to increase the daily production of oil in Gabar field in the Kurdish province of Sirnak to 100,000 barrels.
“We are hopeful of Gabar. We will not listen to what people say otherwise and we continue to try to raise the daily production from 70,000 to 100,000,” Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 8th Ordinary Grand Congress.
He said that the Gabar field is creating job opportunities for people in the region to work in the energy sector, adding that they have employed 3,000 people so far.
In December 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of the oil field in Sirnak’s Mount Gabar, containing an estimated 150 million barrels valued at approximately $12 billion.
“Today, daily production in Gabar has exceeded 70,000 barrels. Gabar, as it is now, will earn $2 billion annually,” said Bayraktar.
Sirnak is a small province in southeastern Turkey, bordering the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey is struggling with crippling economic woes with its currency losing value and people facing soaring inflation and a cost of living crisis.
Mehmet Yarka, former mayor of Sirnak, said in March 2023 that the city's booming economy had kickstarted a reverse migration from the bigger cities back to Sirnak.
“Sirnak has grown and developed a lot. People build homes and invest, and those who left the city due to issues, are now returning from Adana, Ankara, Mersin, and Istanbul,” Yarka said at the time.
