Natural Gas Reserves Worth $1 Billion In Turkey's Gabar Mountain, President Erdogan Says

Türkiye President announced on Sunday that the nation has discovered Natural Gas reserves Worth $1 Billion In Southeastern Sirnak Province.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Source : Getty

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said that Türkiye has discovered natural gas reserves in the Gabar Mountain in Southeastern Sirnak province, which are approximately worth $ 1 billion. He made the aforementioned remarks at the opening ceremony of a sports complex in the Sakarya province. In December last year, around 150 million barrels of net oil reserves, valued at approximately $ 12 billion, were discovered in the southeastern mountain. Erdogan called this discovery as "One of the top 10 onshore discoveries in 2022."

Four out of those wells are operational in the region which produces around 5,000 barrels of oil per day, reported the news agency Xinhua. Ahead of the general elections, which are set to take place on May 14, the government has rolled out a series of large infrastructure and defense projects. With this development, the Turkish leader aims for a third term in office.

Recently, Türkiye commissioned its first multi-purpose amphibious assault ship and subsequently launched the nation's first delivery from its Black Sea field.

Turkish Currency Breaks Through Key Threshold Against USD Amid Soaring Inflation Rate

At 2:10 p.m. (1110 GMT), one dollar was traded at 15.03 Turkish liras, exceeding the resistance level of 15.00. The currency has lost almost 60 percent of its value against the greenback since 2021. According to Yalcin Karatepe, a professor of finance at Ankara University, Turkey's central bank intervened to keep the lira below the threshold of 15.00 in the morning but failed. One dollar was fluctuating in the narrow band of 14.50-15.00 liras for the last two months. The renewed depreciation of the Turkish currency came after the country's inflation rose at a monthly rate of 7.25 percent in April and 69.97 percent from a year earlier, the highest in the last two decades, driven mainly by growing transportation and food prices, the Turkish statistical institute revealed, reported Xinhua.

The Turkish economy has long been suffering from a series of turmoil, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which pushed energy prices up. In February, the Turkish government announced new economic measures to ease the economic burden on Turkish citizens against the skyrocketing cost of living, including reducing the value-added tax on basic food products and giving credit support to businesses and exporters. It also raised the monthly minimum wage by 50 percent to 4,250 liras, but the measures fell short to alleviate the economic suffering, reported Xinhua.