Nuclear deal with China may be finalized soon: Minister

ISTANBUL

Türkiye may finalize a deal with China on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Thrace region soon, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

"If we work tirelessly on this, in a few months' time we hope to finalize this inter-governmental agreement,” Bayraktar told Chinese broadcaster CGTN in an interview.

Bayraktar recently traveled to China to hold talks with Chinese government officials and executives of several Chinese companies. During his visit, Türkiye and China inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in the field of energy transition.

“We're going to be able to finalize all these negotiations with the Chinese company. NEA [the National Energy Administration] has full support for this [nuclear] project and it will be a landmark project between Türkiye and China,” Bayraktar told the Chinese broadcaster.

Russia is building Türkiye’s first nuclear plant in southern Türkiye on the Mediterranean coast. The plant will have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts. It will produce 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, about 10 percent of the country’s power consumption, when it becomes fully operational.

Türkiye is willing to cooperate with China in mining, nuclear and renewable energy to meet challenges of growing energy demand, reducing energy import dependency and mitigating climate change, the minister said in the interview.

“Most likely, we are going to sign an agreement with Ministry of Natural Resources of China on a cooperation framework in mining. Especially, we want to focus on critical minerals,” Bayraktar added.

Gas exploration in the Black Sea

In an interview with Turkish broadcaster Habertürk, the minister said that drilling to find new gas reserves in the Göktepe-2 well in the western Black Sea has started.

“The drilling will be completed in July…We want to give good news to the Turkish nation [on new gas find].”

The daily natural gas production at the Sakarya field in the Black Sea is currently at a record 5 million cubic meters, according to the minister.

Some 20 million homes use natural gas in Türkiye, Bayraktar said. “Natural gas produced at the Sakarya filed meets the consumption of 10 percent of those homes.”

They have drilled eight wells in the Mediterranean but could not make a significant discovery there, the minister noted. “But we have not given up on the eastern Mediterranean," he said.

Oil production in the Gabar region is “going very well” as the daily production has reached 42,500 barrels.

“Our target is to produce 100,000 barrels per day at 95 wells,” Bayraktar said.