Türkiye is working toward achieving energy independence as well as a huge transformation in the upcoming 30 years, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said, indicating that Ankara will focus on developing several energy sources to meet its national demands.
“Türkiye is a country whose energy demand is continuously growing. Our first priority is, therefore, to ensure the security of supply in a sustainable manner. Secondly, unfortunately, as you know, Türkiye is dependent on outside sources regarding energy,” Bayraktar told the Ankara Bureau Chiefs of media outlets.
“As of today, we import almost 70% of sources we call primary energy sources. Türkiye today is 92% foreign-dependent when it comes to crude oil. We import 99% of natural gas,” he added.
The minister underlined that, thus, the discoveries in the Mount Gabar area as well as searches in other areas, were highly valuable.
“We need to meet the increasing demand and we need to reduce dependency on outside sources,” Bayraktar said, emphasizing that this must be done in the most competitive manner possible while also focusing on using local resources.
Another target is to make Türkiye carbon neutral by 2053, the minister reiterated, reminding that Ankara joined the Paris climate agreement, which is the first comprehensive agreement on climate change, requiring countries to ratify it to limit the increase in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
“This means radical changes are needed in all areas ranging from transportation to buildings, from industry to agriculture and energy in the upcoming 30 years. Electric vehicles will, for example, be used widely while the use of electricity will increase in all fields.”
Bayraktar, however, underlined that fighting climate change is not only the responsibility of the energy ministry but also necessitates changes in all areas, including investment, employment and production. The field of energy also requires long-term planning, the minister added, giving the example of the Akkuyu Nuclear Plant, which will have a lifetime of about 80 years.
Similarly, the economy is also affected by energy.
“One of the main deadlocks in Türkiye’s economy is the current account deficit, and one of the main reasons for this deficit, unfortunately, is energy imports – the foreign dependency we mentioned. We made imports of $96.5 billion in 2022 as oil and natural gas prices in the world have increased drastically. It is impossible to transform the economy with such a large energy import,” Bayraktar said.
Within this scope, the minister eyes also diversifying the investment portfolio in energy and attracting foreign investors.
“We currently have projects worth $200 billion, some of which must be launched and finalized by 2035, some of which will start and end in this period, and some of whose legislation will be prepared in this period. Among these projects are renewables, nuclear, natural gas/oil searches, natural gas/oil and electricity infrastructure as well as interconnection projects,” the ministry pointed out.
“We want to prepare the legal, financial and technical infrastructure necessary for these projects. Therefore, our main target for the new period is to initiate and implement a new investment and reform process in energy.”
Renewable potential
Türkiye has an enormous resource and potential in renewables, the minister highlighted, saying that renewable energy can contribute to multiple areas, including meeting the increasing energy demand in the country, reducing dependency on foreign sources and decreasing emissions for its climate change goals.
“In renewables, we want to use onshore-offshore wind. In the upcoming period, we have a target of constructing approximately 1,500 megawatts of wind projects each year. We have a 5,000-megawatt offshore wind project by 2035. There is a serious potential in the Marmara Sea, in Kıyıköy and around the Black Sea,” Bayraktar said. “This 1,500 megawatts will reach an installed power of 30,000 megawatts in Türkiye’s wind power with an additional power increase of approximately 18,000 megawatts in the next 12 years.”
Again, solar energy is also one of the areas the minister targets further development.
“We need to activate at least 3,000-3,500 megawatts of newly installed power annually; that is, we have set an additional target of approximately 40,000 megawatts by 2035. While doing this, we want local and foreign investors to see the Turkish market. Although these investments are worth doing even only for the national demand, it is also possible to export them to various parts of the world,” he added.
The minister also drew attention to energy efficiency, which would similarly contribute to Türkiye’s goals while reducing emissions.
“The simplest way of reducing emissions is to use energy efficiently, both in production and consumption, in residences, industry and other fields,” Bayraktar said and emphasized.
Türkiye ranks fifth in Europe and 12th in the world in renewable energy installed capacity and seventh in Europe and 12th in the world regarding wind energy installed power.
Nuclear energy is necessary for low-carbon economies, Bayraktar said, as Türkiye’s first plant, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), received the initial batch of nuclear fuel this year.
“Akkuyu is the world's largest nuclear construction site; four reactors are rising at the same time. We will start generating electricity next year,” he said.
The Akkuyu NPP is being built by Russia's state atomic energy company Rosatom in Mersin province on the southern Mediterranean coastline.
The firm holds a 99.2% stake in the project, estimated to cost around $20 billion (TL 388.53 billion), marking it the biggest investment in Türkiye’s history implemented on a single site.
Türkiye and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement in 2010 to build the plant. The foundation of the first reactor was laid in April 2018, while the construction of the second, third and fourth units started in June 2020, March 2021 and June 2022, respectively.
Türkiye has also started planning for a second plant in Sinop province at the Black Sea and a third in Thrace.
Furthermore, apart from these conventional big nuclear plants, Ankara is also in talks with the United States and the United Kingdom for small modular reactors.
“By the 2050s, Türkiye will have a nuclear-installed power of over 20,000 megawatts. In other words, it will be almost the size of four Akkuyus. Some of them may be large-scale power plants and others small modular reactors, which are very important for the transformation of our industry in energy,” the minister continued.
Türkiye is in talks with Russia, South Korea and China for its second and third nuclear plants, Bayraktar said. Ankara also cooperates with France in Akkuyu as a third party in surveillance.
“There are criticisms that Akkuyu was left to the Russians. There are many different stakeholders there as well as different independent auditing organizations.”
Türkiye has also seen significant investments and discoveries in oil and natural gas in the past few years as the country aims to develop its searches for local sources with the goal of further decreasing foreign dependency.
“We consume approximately 1 million barrels of crude oil daily in Türkiye. So far, we meet about 8% of this crude oil with our own means, that is, Turkish Petroleum (TP) produces a significant part of it, but we also have small domestic and foreign producers,” Bayraktar said.
“With the discovery in Gabar, we will hopefully increase this figure to 100,000 barrels daily this year. The target is to increase this figure to 200,000 barrels by the end of 2024, which means that Türkiye will meet 20% of its own needs.”
The oil discovered in Gabar is of high quality, the minister emphasized.
With the understanding that “geography is destiny but that foreign dependency is not,” the minister indicates to make the most of available sources and search further.
Gabar was an area where searches could not be made as it was plagued with terrorism, but now a window of opportunity has opened, Bayraktar said. Similarly, by creating its own fleet of four drillships as of 2016, Türkiye developed this strategy in the Mediterranean.
“We will dig new exploration wells in the regions heading toward Hakkari this year. Our expectations are high in this sense,” the minister added, saying that although the Gabar discovery is a large-scale global discovery, it will only meet 20% of Türkiye’s national needs, requiring a further 80% of new sources.
Bayraktar also mentioned eastern Şırnak province as a route of oil transition.
“Şırnak is actually one of the world oil transit routes. Oil coming from Northern Iraq or Kirkuk passes through Şırnak and reaches Ceyhan and, from there, goes to world markets. I hope it will be an important oil production location again.”
Another goal is to develop the TP and Turkish companies to be global players that will operate in various areas such as Azerbaijan, Africa, Libya and Iraq.
Located in a region adjacent to approximately 60% of the world's proven oil and natural gas reserves, Türkiye aims to become a center for energy distribution.
“In terms of Türkiye’s supply security, we aim to continue our relations with existing countries and to further increase our relations with others,” Bayraktar said.
“Russia supplies us with gas. Azerbaijan and Iran as well. But we have established a very important infrastructure investment, an important LNG (liquefied natural gas) infrastructure. Maybe 10% of the Turkish market is provided by American LNG companies. So, there are different alternatives, which we want to improve too,” he said, indicating that Iraq also has the potential as an alternative gas source.
Russian President Vladimir Putin first proposed creating a gas base in Türkiye in October as a means to redirect supplies from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines and export them to the European market, an idea that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has supported.
Erdoğan said Russian and Turkish energy authorities would work together to designate the best location for the potential gas distribution center, adding that Türkiye’s Thrace region, bordering Greece and Bulgaria, appeared to be the best spot.
Türkiye is home to seven international natural gas pipelines.
The minister pointed out that Türkiye plays an important role in the supply security of Europe, especially following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bayraktar also said that cooperation with Israel could restart in this field as the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on the agenda.
“In energy, we do not want to limit our cooperation to natural gas only. There may be cooperation in energy in different fields, but gas is a subject that can be the flagship of this business in a sense,” he added.
Bayraktar said that energy could solve the conflicts and unrest in the region.
Türkiye has also embarked on a regional normalization policy in recent years, mending ties with countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Armenia.
Within this scope, cooperation in several fields with Gulf countries has increased. President Erdoğan, with a significant delegation, will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE as of July 17, respectively.
“Energy will be one of the most important points on the agenda of the visit. These are the areas where we can produce large-scale projects. The projects include nuclear, wind, solar and infrastructure projects,” Bayraktar said.
“We have been working intensively with the UAE in the past two-three weeks. We will sign new agreements. We view our energy relations with them at the level of strategic partnership,” he concluded.
