Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar gave important information about Türkiye's natural gas and oil exploration activities in a television program he attended. Minister Bayraktar, who announced that the second phase of the Sakarya Gas Field has started, stated that shale gas and shale oil exploration activities have started in Diyarbakır and that this step is a very historical and important development like the discovery of the Sakarya Gas Field.
Minister Bayraktar mentioned the Sakarya Gas Field in his statements and said, "Four of these ships are currently working intensively to increase the production in the Black Sea Sakarya Gas Field. We have completed the first phase. We are currently producing and we use our own natural gas in 4 million households and homes today. We produce approximately 9.5-10 million cubic meters a day." he said.
Bayraktar announced that a giant facility was established on the sea for the second phase production and said: "We are breaking new ground in Turkish oil and natural gas exploration and production. We will now process natural gas on the sea surface. I do not call it a ship, I call it a platform. Because there are 21 separate modules on it. In a sense, you can think of it as a natural gas processing and production facility, a factory."
Providing information about the features of the facility, Minister Bayraktar said, "It is a very large platform, 300 meters long, approximately three football fields long, 56 meters wide and, including the combustion tower, approximately the height of a 40-storey skyscraper above the sea. Therefore, we will process the gas in this facility and then we will pump it to Filyos, 170 kilometers away, from the seabed through pipes. From there, we will bring this gas to our homes and workplaces." He used his expressions.
Minister Bayraktar also emphasized the contribution of the new platform to the economy and said, "Now it will double the production of 10 million cubic meters in the first phase. In other words, it will increase it to 20 million cubic meters. In an environment where approximately 1000 cubic meters is 1000 dollars, it will produce 10 million dollars a day, and when you look at the annual production, it will produce a natural gas production of 3.5-3.6 billion dollars starting from 2027. Therefore, 3.5 billion dollars annually will remain in our pocket." "We will deduct it from imports," he said.
Continuing his statements, Bayraktar said:
In such a case, we will use this gas as our own, not from imported sources. The number of those 4 million households will now have increased to 8 million. By the beginning of 2027, one in every three households will have used our own gas.
"There are 10 wells below. We have prepared all of them. Now, we will make the connections from the wellheads to this platform in the next few weeks. Of course, first we will fix the platform," said Minister Bayraktar, adding, "We will fix this platform to the seabed below with 20 large chains. After that, we will make the connections with the pipes from below and hopefully our goal is that flame tower before the end of this year, that skyscraper we talked about, we will burn Sakarya gas on top of it." He made a statement.
Stating that the work to further increase the production capacity continues without slowing down, he said, "Hopefully in 2028, because our goal is this: Another brother will come to Osman Gazi. Its production is currently continuing. It will move to Türkiye around December 2027 and hopefully it will be in Türkiye in the first quarter of 2028." he said.
Minister Bayraktar said, "The second floating production platform is coming to Türkiye in the first quarter of 2028 and this time we will produce an additional 25 million cubic meters with it. It has a slightly higher production capacity. Therefore, with 45 million cubic meters, three out of every four households in Türkiye will now use our own gas, reaching 75 percent, and three out of four households will be using our own gas." he said.
Stating that a daily production of approximately 300 thousand barrels has been reached as of today, Bayraktar said, "When we reach 2028, when Osmangazi's brother comes to Türkiye, this will increase to 550 thousand barrels when we increase the production to 45 million cubic meters in the Black Sea field." he said. Explaining that their first goal after 2028 is to increase Türkiye's oil to 1 million barrels, Bayraktar stated that they are conducting exploration in new fields both in the Blue Homeland and abroad.
Drawing attention to the activities carried out in the Black Sea, Minister Bayraktar stated that the fifth ship was drilling in the Akçabeyli well in the Western Black Sea and said, "This time we are drilling a well with signs of oil. In other words, we think it may be mainly oil, not natural gas. Of course, every drilling we do is actually drilling with great hope and belief." he said.
Emphasizing that they made new discoveries in Adıyaman, where production fell below 10 thousand barrels, Bayraktar said that they took steps to increase the current production by approximately 50 percent to 15 thousand barrels and that they will increase Adıyaman to 14-15 thousand barrels per day within this year.
Minister Bayraktar stated that they started exploration for shale gas and shale oil with unconventional production methods in Batman and Diyarbakır. Bayraktar announced that this project, which is carried out with the horizontal drilling method, will start to yield results towards the end of the year, and that they plan to complete horizontal drilling in 2027 and that they have a program of 24 wells that will last until 2028.
Minister Bayraktar stated the following on the subject:
"If it is successful, hopefully if we are successful there, it is one of the projects that could have a game-changing effect on the oil industry for Turkey. In other words, just as the 2020 Sakarya Gas Field discovery is a very historical and important discovery, this work in Diyarbakır is at least as important. Then we can start producing a very large reserve there. We know and believe that there is oil stuck in the rocks, but it is important to be able to extract it and extract it at an affordable price."
Referring to the work carried out on Gabar Mountain in Şırnak, Minister Bayraktar announced that they have now reached 84 thousand barrels of daily production in the region. Stating that while the existing reserve is being put into production, the search for new reserves in and around the west of Gabar continues, Bayraktar said, "We see a potential there that can take Gabar to over 100 thousand barrels, hopefully with the current figures and studies. We are currently about to discover important reserves in the west of Gabar." he said.
In his statement regarding whether there will be a price increase in electricity and natural gas bills, Minister Bayraktar said, "We do not have a price change planned at the moment." he said.
Stating that they make a price adjustment at the expected inflation rate every year, Minister Bayraktar gave examples from the practices in the past years and said, "We did this in 2024. We did not do it in April 2024, we did it in July. We did it in April 2025. In 2026, the expected inflation announced by the Central Bank in April of this year was 25 percent. We also had a price regulation of 24-25 percent." he said.
Minister Bayraktar pointed out that prices are generally made according to the actual inflation in Türkiye and said, "We are one of the rare institutions that make pricing according to the expected inflation. Today, we are talking about the cost of living in Türkiye because unfortunately people make pricing according to the actual inflation. But we did this as a general principle and did not make any other price adjustments during the year." he said.
Bayraktar continued his statements as follows:
"This is our goal this year. But obviously the conditions have changed a lot this year. Prices for natural gas have increased from 400 dollars to 1000 dollars. We do not have any price changes planned at the moment, let me tell you for now. We are following the developments and the budget situation. But for now, we do not have such an arrangement plan in October and November."
