“We have previously made many calls for the people of Sirnak to benefit from this oil, but unfortunately it has not benefited the people of Sirnak. Three thousand people work here, but most of them are from outside,” said Mehmet Zeki Irmez, from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
The discovery of the Mount Gabar field, with an estimated 150 million barrels, was announced in December 2022. Many people living in the area bought tankers with the hopes of making some money transporting crude, but the government is reportedly planning to use the Iraq-Turkey pipeline that connects to Ceyhan port.
“They say that they want to transport the oil to Ceyhan via pipelines, which is 38 km long… while the locals were expecting the establishment of a refinery. If this does not happen, it will not benefit the area at all,” said Irmez.
Daily production of oil in Turkey has reached 132,000 barrels, including 78,000 from the oil field on Mount Gabar, according to Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, state media reported on Saturday.
“As part of the exploration and production activities that Turkey has accelerated on the path to energy independence through domestic production, the daily oil amount produced from 95 wells in Gabar reached 78,000 barrels as of early March,” he said.
Osman Gelis, the head of Sirnak's Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw that they want the government to create thousands of jobs in the oil sector.
“Two years ago, the production was between 5,000 to 10,000 [barrels per day]. It is increasing day after day. We would like 10,000 of our unemployed youth to work. We want our people to benefit from the oil as much as possible,” he said, adding that he expects oil to bring jobs into the area.
Sirnak province has one of Turkey’s highest unemployment rates.
Ferdi Sak contributed to this article.
