Energy policies yielding results in boosting local production: Bayraktar

OSMANİYE

Türkiye’s National Energy and Mining Policy is yielding results in reducing the country’s dependency on imported energy and boosting local production, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

Speaking at a gathering in the province of Osmaniye, the minister recalled the policy document was unveiled in 2016 and said: “We started to reap its fruits.”

“In 2020, the gas that we searched for and found in the Black Sea with our own ships and engineers has started to be delivered to our homes. We meet the natural gas needs of 2.6 million households from the natural gas we produce in the Black Sea alone,” he said.

The minister reminded that a floating production facility will arrive in the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea at the end of this month, which will boost the output there to 20 million cubic meters.

The floating facility will produce natural gas for 20 years, he said, adding that production from the field will meet the natural gas needs of 10 million households.

“We need to increase production and make other discoveries in the Black Sea,” Bayraktar said.

Türkiye is a major importer not only of natural gas but also of oil, and is dependent on foreign oil, he stressed.

The oil find in the Gabar region was the biggest discovery ever in the country, the minister said, noting that the production from Gabar is currently 47,000 barrels/day.

“We aim to increase the production there to 100,000 barrels within the next year, and Türkiye will produce 200,000 barrels by 2025. For that, we need more exploration,” Bayraktar said.