Alparslan Bayraktar, who was appointed as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, took over from Fatih Dönmez yesterday.
After taking over the post, Minister Bayraktar used the following expressions in his speech that gave hints of the new era:
“In line with the 2053 net zero emission target set by our President, we will work together with you to make the highest contribution to the welfare of our country with a new investment and reform move for a greater transformation in the field of energy and natural resources. We will strengthen the role of Turkey, which is an actor, in the global energy and mining markets.”
Domestic production of natural gas will reach 4 billion cubic meters annually
Within the scope of the election promises of the AK Party, announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before the election, reducing foreign dependency in energy is among the priority issues of the upcoming period.
Turkey has witnessed important studies and investments made by the public and private sectors in the field of energy in recent years, under the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, within the framework of the goal of reducing foreign dependency in energy.
The first step towards reducing dependence on natural gas, which is the largest foreign dependency item in energy, came with the supply of 710 billion cubic meters of Black Sea gas to the grid last month. With the first phase production of 10 million cubic meters per day, Black Sea gas is expected to produce approximately 3.6 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
Turkey, which consumes approximately 53.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas as of 2022 and produces approximately 380 million cubic meters of domestic natural gas annually from various fields, primarily Tekirdağ and Kırklareli, will increase its current domestic production gas capacity to approximately 4 billion cubic meters with the first phase of Black Sea gas.
In the Black Sea gas, the gas production capacity of 40 million cubic meters per day in the second phase and 60 million cubic meters per day in the third phase is expected to be commissioned in the coming years.
Storage capacity in natural gas will be increased to 10 billion cubic meters
While Turkey increases the rate of domestic resources in natural gas consumption, it continues its efforts to increase its natural gas storage capacity to 10 billion cubic meters.
The capacity of Silivri Natural Gas Storage Facility, one of the country’s giant investments in energy supply security, was increased to 4.6 billion cubic meters in December 2022.
Expansion work continues at the Tuz Gölü Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility. Upon completion, the facility’s storage capacity, which is currently 1.2 billion cubic meters, will increase to 5.4 billion cubic meters.
Türkiye commissioned the third floating LNG storage and gasification unit
Saros FSRU, which will be Turkey’s third Floating LNG Storage and Gasification Unit (FSRU), has been commissioned with a capacity of 28 million per day, while the country’s daily gasification capacity has reached the level of 150 million cubic meters.
40 million cubic meters of gas per day from Egegaz Aliağa LNG Terminal, 37 million cubic meters from Marmara Ereğlisi LNG Terminal, 28 million daily from Ertuğrul Gazi FSRU facility, and 20 million cubic meters of gas per day through Aktif Liman FSRU facility.
Oil exploration is focused on Gabar and the Eastern Black Sea coasts.
Another area of great dependence on foreign energy is oil. Turkey, which has a daily consumption of approximately 1 million barrels, discovered oil reserves of 1 billion barrels in the Martyr Aybüke Yalçın Field in Gabar at the beginning of May.
Turkey, which currently produces 80 thousand barrels per day, aims to produce 100 thousand barrels of oil per day from the Martyr Aybüke Yalçın Field, thus increasing the current production to 180 thousand barrels, and thus meeting 20 percent of the current oil consumption with domestic production.
Turkey concentrates on oil exploration activities in and around Gabar on land and offshore of Ordu, Rize and Samsun in the Black Sea. Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) intensifies its activities in the region with its seismic exploration vessels.
Former Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Dönmez, announced in May that they could start drilling operations off the Ordu coast within a year.
In 2028, the target of installed power in electricity is to exceed 135 thousand megawatts.
Under the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, with public and private sector investments, Turkey’s installed power in electricity has been increased by more than 17 thousand megawatts to 104 thousand 695 megawatts in the last 5 years.
Within the scope of the AK Party’s election promises, it is aimed that the installed power will exceed 135 thousand megawatts in 2028. The most significant increase in electricity installed power will be experienced when Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant comes into operation at full capacity.
It is planned that Akkuyu NPP, which received fuel for its first reactor last month and officially gained the status of a nuclear power plant, will start electricity production within 1 year and the remaining 3 reactors will be put into operation at one year intervals until 2026.
With a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts, the power plant is expected to meet 10 percent of Turkey’s electricity needs when fully operational. On the other hand, studies are continuing on the construction of a second power plant in Sinop and a third power plant in Thrace.
Turkey’s installed power in this field, which has also focused on renewable energy sources in electricity generation in recent years, has reached half of the total installed power. Installed power reached 10 thousand 74 megawatts in solar, 11 thousand 481 in wind, 31 thousand 588 in hydroelectric power plants and 1998 in biomass.
In the short term, the target in lithium production is 600 tons.
With the goal of producing value-added products from mineral resources and the slogan “from ore to jewelry”, Turkey aims to both reduce imports and increase exports.
In this context, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources commissioned the Boron carbide plant in Balıkesir in recent months, and the pilot plant in Eskişehir’s Beylikova district to process the world’s second largest rare earth elements reserve. The Ministry also put into service a pilot lithium facility in the Kırka district of the city.
It is aimed to lay the foundation of the large facility where lithium will be processed on an industrial scale this year and to produce 600 tons per year.
Boron carbide is used in high-tech products, especially in rare metals and lithium, aerospace and electric vehicle batteries.
