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Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Ahmet Berat Conkar said his country views Angola as one of its key strategic partners in Africa, calling for joint oil and gas projects that could form the foundation of a long-term energy alliance between the two countries.
Conkar made the remarks at the "Türkiye-Angola Day: Development of Investments in Agriculture, Oil and Gas" forum organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board, known by its Turkish acronym DEIK.
"We believe that joint projects that can be developed in Angola's onshore and offshore oil and natural gas fields could form the foundation of a long-term and strategic energy partnership between our countries,"
Conkar said, adding that cooperation between state oil companies TPAO and Angola's Sonangol, including technical knowledge sharing and upstream project development, would yield benefits for both sides.
Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 126 million dollars in 2025, well short of the 500 million dollar target officials have set, a gap that DEIK Türkiye-Angola Business Council Chairman Halil Enes Olpak described as evidence of untapped potential rather than failure, saying it represented "a strong foundation for further diversification of economic relations and increased mutual investment."
Central to Türkiye's pitch was its rapidly expanded deepwater capability. Conkar noted that Türkiye has built what it describes as the world's fourth-largest deepwater energy fleet, consisting of six drillships and two seismic research vessels, largely off the back of gas discoveries in the Black Sea.
Those discoveries, estimated at approximately 800 billion cubic meters, have given Türkiye hands-on experience in offshore exploration, drilling and production technology that officials say they are now prepared to deploy abroad.
Conkar cited ongoing operations in Somalia as a live example, saying Türkiye had deployed one of its newest drillships there and, as of May, had commenced deepwater drilling operations that rank among the deepest being conducted anywhere in the world. "We hope to make a significant hydrocarbon discovery in this region," he said, calling it a landmark moment for Türkiye-Africa relations.
On the mining front, Conkar highlighted the international activities of MTAIC, Türkiye's state-linked international mining company, which has been conducting exploration across Africa.
He pointed to a gold mining project in Niger that he said was approaching the production phase, and expressed confidence that MTAIC's technical expertise could open new partnerships in Angola's gold and diamond sectors specifically.
"We believe there are concrete cooperation opportunities in exploration, technical consultancy, field development and joint investment models," he said.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ahmet Gumen framed the agricultural dimension of the partnership as no less significant than the energy dimension, arguing that food security, rural development and climate resilience made farming cooperation a strategic necessity, not merely a commercial one.
Angola holds an estimated 58 million hectares of arable land, making it one of Africa's largest reservoirs of untapped agricultural potential, according to DEIK Chairman Nail Olpak. Yet much of that land remains uncultivated, and Gumen pointed to significant investment gaps in irrigation infrastructure, sanitation, storage, logistics and food processing.
"Türkiye has important capacity and experience in irrigation systems, agricultural machinery, livestock and food processing industries," he said, adding that Turkish private sector experience on the continent made Angola worth considering not just as a trading partner but as "a center for joint production and regional expansion."
Angola's Ambassador to Ankara, Joao Salvador dos Santos Neto, endorsed that framing, saying Türkiye "is seen as an extremely important business partner within the framework of Angola's national development plan" by virtue of its economic scale, technical expertise and technological capacity.
He pointed to Angola's fertile farmland, strategic minerals and rich fishing potential as assets whose sustainable exploitation represented "the fundamental task ahead."
DEIK Chairman Olpak, whose organization has operated a Türkiye-Angola business council since 2011, noted that the two countries' combined GDP stands at 1.75 trillion dollars, a figure that puts the current bilateral trade volume in stark perspective.
Türkiye, he said, is best understood as "the most important production, investment and technology hub between Western Europe and China," with a total foreign trade volume of 820 billion dollars, and he called on Angolan counterparts to invest in Türkiye accordingly.
Officials also referenced last year's third session of the Türkiye-Angola Joint Economic Commission, held in Ankara, as a framework through which future energy, hydrocarbon, mining, agriculture and investment cooperation would be channeled into concrete projects.
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