Sakarya gas field’s daily production to rise to 40 mln cubic meters: Minister

ISTANBUL

The daily natural gas production at the Sakarya field will be increased to 10 million cubic meters in a short period of time from the current 4 million cubic meters, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

“We aim to increase the production later to 40 million cubic meters,” he said.

Speaking at the Turkish-German Energy Forum on Oct. 27, Bayraktar noted that Türkiye has been working to reduce its foreign dependency on natural gas, recalling the 710 billion cubic meters of gas found in the Sakarya field in the Black Sea in 2020.

Production at the field started in less than three years, the minister added.

Demand for gas and electricity in Türkiye more than tripled over the past 20 years, Bayraktar said, noting that demand for electricity has been increasing by 4.7 percent annually.

“We shape our energy policy in line with the goals of meeting our energy demand, reducing our dependence on foreign sources, and becoming a carbon neutral economy within 30 years.”

Türkiye is determined to build a sustainable and green future in the field of energy, he added.

Presently, renewables account for 55 percent of the country’s installed capacity, according to Bayraktar.

“We aim to increase this to 65 percent by 2035. To achieve this, we must commission 3,500 megawatts of solar and 1,500 megawatts of wind power plants every year,” he explained.

The plans for the energy industry for the upcoming period also include installing 5,000 megawatts of offshore wind installed capacity, Bayraktar said.

Türkiye also targets to have a total of 20,000 megawatts installed capacity in nuclear energy in 30 years by integrating both conventional and small modular nuclear reactors into the energy system, the minister said.