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Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced plans for a $30 billion investment in electricity transmission infrastructure through 2035.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency during the 9th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, Austria, Bayraktar outlined Türkiye's strategy to become a regional energy hub.
"By 2035, with a $30 billion investment, particularly on the transmission side, we aim to equip Türkiye with electricity lines from east to west and north to south," Bayraktar said, adding, "We are actually targeting new electricity highways."
While taking these steps, Bayraktar said they are working to increase electricity connections with neighboring countries and enable them to deliver their electricity generation to Europe through Türkiye.
"In electricity, oil, and natural gas, Türkiye is an important market and an important consumer, but at the same time, because its geographical location and infrastructure are strong, it is becoming an important center in the trade of this electricity, this energy, oil, and natural gas to the countries in its region," he stated.
Bayraktar highlighted Türkiye's work with its own engineers and ships, noting that the gas discovery in the Black Sea, daily production of 80,000 barrels of oil in Gabar, and oil discovery in Diyarbakir will make Türkiye an important player in this field.
He emphasized that there will be new discoveries in Türkiye as well.
The minister said they want to meet the 2 million barrel equivalent of oil and natural gas that the country needs through domestic and international work.
"Our biggest goal is to free Türkiye from external dependence in this field," Bayraktar said.
"We want to achieve this through production we will make in Türkiye and partnerships and production we will make abroad," he added.
Acknowledging that meeting all needed gas and oil domestically may not be possible, Bayraktar mentioned: "We definitely plan to make partnerships in our close geography, in Africa, and in different countries, using our own capabilities to make production there as well."
Bayraktar noted that projects are currently being carried out, stating, "We have partnerships in Iraq, in three fields in Basra, and again in three fields in northern Iraq. We have both oil and natural gas partnerships in Azerbaijan. Very recently, we made a partnership with SOCAR and BP in a new field."
The minister said OPEC is a platform that enables cooperation and that Türkiye has serious investments in two areas: infrastructure and connectivity, with very important developments in this field.
Bayraktar explained that Türkiye invests in infrastructure through oil pipelines and regasification facilities and in connectivity by establishing close cooperation with neighbors in both electricity and natural gas and oil. He said they foresee new projects in this area.
Expressing that they are working on using the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline at full capacity, Bayraktar made this assessment: "While Türkiye makes all these investments, it also ensures its own supply security and contributes to regional supply security. In this sense, Türkiye has an important role, especially for Europe's natural gas supply security."
Drawing attention to the important function of regasification terminals in Türkiye for delivering LNG to Europe, Bayraktar said, "Türkiye has become able to export the unused part of the large amount of gas that comes."
Stating that Türkiye continues its work within the scope of normalizing life in Syria and meeting energy needs, Bayraktar said, "We completed the connection of the natural gas pipeline with the system in Syria in a very short time."
"Our Armed Forces cleaned the mined area at the border there, in coordination with our Ministry of National Defense, and we made that connection. Now it's a matter of time before we provide gas to Syria," he added.
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