On Sunday, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said in an interview with Anadolu Agency news that Ankara will soon make a major announcement regarding a discovery of major oil reserves.

He explained that Türkiye has identified new resources near an existing  oil field in the Gabar Mountain area of the Southeast Sirnak Province, however he offered no information on the size of the discovery.

Donmez said, “Operations on drilling and evaluation of the well are nearing completion. The first estimates of the data are positive, but we are waiting for the final results.”

He said the official announcement will be made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as soon as the complete data is available.

The minister also noted that efforts are ongoing to further explore domestic deposits in Türkiye, both onshore and offshore.

Türkiye’s President had revealed in December that a new old field was discovered in Sirnak Province which holds approximately 150 million barrels of reserves at an estimated value of $12 billion.

When he announced it, Erdogan pointed out that the exploration and production activities by state-run Turkish Petroleum had been accelerated during the pandemic, with 2021 yielding 34 discoveries which had added another 71 million barrels to the nation’s reserves.

Over the previous year the oil and gas ambitions of Türkiye have grown considerably. The nation inked a long-term deal with Bulgaria in January, which gave access to Turkish liquified natural gas terminals (LNG) to the Balkan nation.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin in October, gave voice to the idea to establish a gas supply hub in Türkiye which was welcomed by President Erdogan. Such a project would allow Russia to divert the flows of gas which previously transited the sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines, sending them to the Black Sea region.

According to President Putin’s proposal, the gas hub would help to determine gas prices, to avoid the politicization of the product, as well as serve as a distribution platform.