Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said 2026 would be a “critical” year for Türkiye’s energy agenda, arguing it would be the point when several major programs begin to deliver visible results.
Bayraktar, in a televised interview, said the government plans next year to lay the foundation stone for an industrial facility in Eskişehir’s Beylikova with an annual capacity of 570,000 tonnes for rare earth elements.
He said work is continuing to raise the purity level of rare earth output, currently at around 92–93 percent.
On nuclear power, Bayraktar said Türkiye is aiming to bring the first reactor at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant online in 2026 and start generating electricity, while also seeking to build four reactors each in Sinop and Thrace as part of a long-term target of 20,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity.
Bayraktar said energy subsidies would continue and that Ankara plans a similar support model for natural gas, following the approach used for electricity.
He said domestic gas currently covers the needs of around 4 million households and projected that this figure would rise to 8 million in 2026. Bayraktar also said Black Sea gas production would be increased from 9.5 million cubic meters to 20 million cubic meters.
Turning to hydrocarbons, he said Türkiye will carry out its first horizontal drilling next year in Diyarbakır as part of shale oil exploration, with a total of 24 horizontal wells planned, and that the government wants to run a similar project in Thrace for natural gas.
Bayraktar said state energy company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) would, with existing reserves, become “a roughly half-million barrel company” by 2028. He added that the firm aims to pursue growth through mergers and acquisitions and to reach a total oil and gas output of 1 million barrels in the medium term.
On overseas operations, he said Türkiye plans to begin drilling in Pakistan in 2026 and aims to drill in Somalia next year after seismic work there has been completed. He added that Ankara is also reviewing opportunities in Iraq, Syria and Azerbaijan.
Bayraktar said Turkmen gas capacity could rise to as much as three billion cubic meters and that Türkiye wants to receive more of it via the Gürbulak route as part of ongoing negotiations.
He said Ankara has proposed boosting capacity on the Iraq–Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline and that talks will continue, adding that Türkiye is interested in a gas field in Iraq and that Türkiye’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure is ready up to Silopi, near the Iraqi border.
In mining, Bayraktar said work is under way at seven gold mine sites in Niger and that three have reached the production stage. He said production equipment is currently at a port in Nigeria and would be transported to Niger, with first gold output expected within the next few months.
“2026 will be a very busy year in energy,” Bayraktar said, pointing to both the projects already under way and new moves Ankara plans to launch.
