The word oil means stone oil consisting of the Latin words petro (stone) and oleum (oil). Petroleum occurs when organic substances are decomposed and exposed to pressure and heat. It contains hydrogen and carbon, and contains a small amount of nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Petroleum, which is in crude oil, semi-solid and solid form and is composed of heavy hydrocarbon and tar, is named as asphalt, tar, tar and similar. Since the main components of crude oil are hydrogen and carbon, it is also called hydrocarbon.

The world-proven oil reserves of 2019 have been determined as 1.733.9 billion barrels. 833.8 billion barrels of oil reserves are located in Middle Eastern countries, 324.1 billion barrels in South and Central American countries, 244.4 billion barrels in North American countries.

World oil production in 2019 was 95.2 million barrels / day.

In our country, a total of 9,536,832 meters of drilling were drilled until the end of 2019 and 5,063 wells were drilled. 200,301 km 2-dimensional, 67,422 km2 3-dimensional seismic studies were carried out offshore and 184,400 km 2-dimensional and 20,147 km2 3-dimensional seismic studies were carried out onshore.

In 2019, 153 wells were drilled by drilling 340,863 meters in our country. Crude oil production was 2,984,800 tons and the remaining producible oil reserve is 51,076,078 tons.

Exploration works in the seas continue at full speed in order to bring our country's oil and natural gas resources to our economy and to reduce our dependency on foreign countries. In this context, two seismic ships and three drill ships were brought to our country.

Applications for oil exploration licenses are carried out by the General Directorate of Mining and Petroleum Affairs.

In addition to our crude oil imports of 31 million tons in 2019, 13.7 million tons of petroleum products were imported. However, 14.3 million tons of petroleum products were exported. The countries from which we import crude oil are mainly Russia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Libya.