Turkey's Sakarya field produced roughly 9.5 million cubic metres per day as of May, accounting for 92 percent of the country's domestic gas output, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Wednesday as Ankara prepared to spud its first oil-targeted well in the western Black Sea.

What is Turkey's 2026 Black Sea drilling plan?

The country has earmarked six exploration wells across the western, central and eastern Black Sea for 2026, Bayraktar told broadcaster CNBC-e. Turkey's deep-water drilling fleet now numbers six vessels; one works in Somalia, leaving five to support the campaign.

The western Black Sea prospect is the most demanding of the programme. "We will soon begin drilling an oil-targeted well in the western Black Sea. It will be a difficult drilling operation and will take some time," the minister said.

The campaign adds a liquid-hydrocarbon target to a basin that has so far delivered only gas for Ankara.

How large are the Sakarya gas resources?

Estimated reserves have grown sharply since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a 320 billion cubic metre discovery at Sakarya in 2020. Subsequent work lifted the figure to 405 bcm, with additional finds in 2021, 2022 and 2025 pushing the cumulative Black Sea total to 785 bcm.

Turkey brought Black Sea gas ashore in April 2023, processing volumes at a facility in northern Zonguldak province before injection into the national transmission system. Bayraktar expects Black Sea production capacity to double by year-end 2025, lifting household coverage from 4 million today to roughly 8 million.

Ankara's 2028 target is sharper still: 16 to 17 bcm annually, equivalent to about 80 percent of the gas Turkey currently imports from Russia. To handle that throughput, the government is expanding LNG regasification capacity to 200 million cubic metres per day and building pipeline links with neighbours.

What role is Turkey seeking as a regional energy transit hub?

Ankara is in talks on a potential route for Qatari gas to reach European markets through Turkish territory. Separately, Bayraktar said Turkey could handle as much as 2.5 million bpd of Gulf crude to Europe if Iraq and Kuwait rerouted exports away from the Strait of Hormuz.

Both corridors remain contingent on counterpart decisions rather than signed offtake commitments.

How is Ankara balancing climate and energy security?

The briefing in Ankara came ahead of COP31, which Turkey will host in Antalya in November. Bayraktar said the summit should focus on "turning climate commitments into concrete action" while acknowledging tension between energy security and the transition to cleaner fuels.

He cited Brent above $100 a barrel amid the Iran–United States conflict and rising global coal consumption as headwinds. Ankara's domestic target is a 35 percent electrification share by 2035, supported by expanded transmission capacity linking generation-rich and demand-heavy regions.

Electricity demand is set to climb on urbanisation, data-centre build-out for artificial intelligence, electric-vehicle uptake and air-conditioning load, the minister said.

What is the nuclear build-out timeline?

The first reactor at the Russian-built Akkuyu plant in Mersin province, developed by state-owned Rosatom, is expected to come online in the coming months. The four-reactor site will add 4,800 MW of installed capacity and supply about 10 percent of Turkey's electricity once fully operational.

Two further plants are planned at Sinop on the Black Sea coast and in Thrace. Bayraktar said discussions with China, Russia and South Korea continue, and that talks with Canada on the second and third projects should yield greater clarity in coming months.

Watch item: Spud date of the western Black Sea oil well, and confirmation that Sakarya capacity doubles before year-end as flagged by the minister.