Türkiye targets commissioning all four reactors of the country's first nuclear power plant by 2028, a top official said Sunday, underscoring the decadeslong dream for its construction and nuclear ambitions.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar visited the construction site of Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the southern province of Mersin and received information about ongoing works, the statement by the ministry said.

"We are at the largest nuclear power plant construction site in the world where four reactors are being built simultaneously," Bayraktar said.

"There are currently over 30,000 employees. In this sense, it makes a significant contribution to the employment of our country," he added.

Bayraktar emphasized that Akkuyu is very important for both Türkiye’s energy supply security and climate goals, and said, "When the plant is fully commissioned, which is our goal in 2028, all four reactors will be fully commissioned and in this sense, we will be able to meet 10% of Türkiye’s electricity needs from this plant alone."

"Hopefully, next year, starting from the first reactor we will be commissioning other reactors as well," he added.

The Akkuyu NPP is being constructed by Russia's state atomic energy company Rosatom in Mersin province on the southern Mediterranean coastline.

In a written statement shared on the ministry's website, Bayraktar recalled that "the construction of the power plant means the realization of Türkiye’s 70-year dream."

"Because we started on this path in Türkiye in the 1950s, simultaneously with the development of the nuclear sector in the world, and under the leadership of our president, we took the most important step in 2010 within the scope of the intergovernmental agreement we made with the Russian Federation for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant," he explained.

Citing that despite facing certain challenges, the works continue, Bayraktar reaffirmed Türkiye’s commitment to its nuclear energy goals, aiming to achieve a capacity of 20,000 megawatts (MW) by 2050.

Gas production

Earlier on Saturday, during his visit to another southern province, Osmaniye, the minister highlighted the construction of the first reactor is 90% completed while also evaluating the increasing gas production and the country's growing energy needs.

"In Türkiye, we no longer want to import natural gas but produce it ourselves and use it and offer it to our citizens. In this sense, we had a national energy and mining policy that we put forward in 2016. We are now slowly starting to reap its fruits," Bayraktar said.

"In 2020, the gas that we searched for and found in the Black Sea with our own ships and engineers has started to be delivered to our homes," he added.

"We meet the natural gas needs of 2.6 million households from the natural gas we produce in the Black Sea alone," said the minister, conveying the aim to increase the production even further.

Emphasizing that Türkiye is a major importer and dependent on foreign countries not only for natural gas but also for oil, he also recalled the exploration efforts in the oil field, noting that production from the Gabar field in Şirnak province has reached 47,000 barrels per day.

"Hopefully, we aim to increase the production in Gabar to 100,000 barrels within the next year," he said.