Energy: Erdogan announces oil production at the start of the climate conference
Just at the start of COP31 in Turkey, President Erdogan announced the discovery of additional oil fields, which drew sharp criticism from environmentalists.
Quick Look
- At the start of the UN climate conference COP31 in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the exploitation of new oil fields in the southeast of the country.
- This has met with sharp criticism from environmentalists because of Turkey's weak climate footprint.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Turkey is heavily dependent on energy imports and consumes around 1 million barrels of oil every day. At the start of COP31 in Antalya, the host country came under fire for investments in fossil fuels.
Istanbul. Just at the start of the UN climate conference in Turkey, the host, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced the discovery and exploitation of two additional oil fields in the southeast of the country.
The production volume in the Gabar oil field will increase by 30 percent due to new wells, he wrote on Monday evening on
The announcement came on the first day of the two-week UN climate conference COP31 in Antalya, where a good 190 countries discussed the gradual phase-out of the climate-damaging energy sources oil, gas and coal.
Critics have long criticized Turkey's climate footprint as weak, pointing to ongoing investments in these fossil fuels. Just this morning, the environmental organization Urgewald criticized the “fossil ignorance” of the state-owned company Türkiye Petrolleri AO (TPAO) in a new report.
The company has doubled its spending on the search for new oil and gas deposits in the past five years, an expert explained. This speaks volumes about the credibility of the organizer of the World Climate Conference.
The statements are reminiscent of the much-criticized speech by Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev at the start of COP29 in Baku two years ago. At that time, Aliyev called the oil and gas reserves in Azerbaijan a “gift from God” and emphasized that no country should be accused of marketing these raw materials.
Erdogan wrote: “Good news continues to come from the mountains of Gabar.”
For Gabar, in the southeastern Anatolian province of Sirnak near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, estimated reserves of 150 million barrels were announced in 2022. According to the president, at an output of 120,000 barrels per day, this would bring the economy $4.4 billion annually.
Turkey is almost entirely dependent on energy imports. The country consumes around 1 million barrels of oil every day, about 90 percent of which is imported.
However, Ankara aims to reduce daily oil requirements by around 30 percent by 2040 - including by investing $500 billion in electrification.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Daily production in the Gabar oil field will exceed 100,000 barrels in the second half of 2027.
Likely · Within months
Open Questions
- How do other delegations at COP31 react to Erdogan's announcement?
- What specific emissions targets is Turkey setting for the coming years?
