The Turkish government has moved all 81 provincial governments to a single shared schedule of drilling ceremonies, ensuring that an oil derrick is raised in every district of Antalya before the COP31 climate conference closes. Officials say the program was designed to demonstrate hospitality to delegates from around 190 countries.
Construction crews began on Monday evening, working in shifts so that no delegation would be obliged to walk more than four hundred metres to see a working pump. The Ministry of Energy has ordered that each derrick be painted in the colours of the host nation, and that the delegates' hotels be fitted with small brass plaques identifying the wells that supply their water heaters. A ministry spokesperson described the measure as «a courtesy that the climate movement has never once offered us».
Traffic in the coastal districts has been rerouted for the installation of the rigs, and the tourist marina has been converted into a staging yard for drilling pipe. Residents of Konyaaltı were asked to vacate their balconies on Tuesday so that technicians could measure the sightlines to the new towers. The governor's office has confirmed that the program will continue for the duration of the talks, with a new derrick unveiled each morning at ten o'clock, followed by a brass band.
Asked whether the ceremonies might be read as contradicting the conference agenda on phasing out fossil fuels, the Minister of Energy replied: «The conference is about the future, and our wells are the future we are offering the world. We have simply decided to make the future visible.» The first forty-nine derricks are expected to be fully operational by Thursday.