After a year marked by some of the biggest energy breakthroughs in its recent history, Türkiye plans to build further momentum in 2026 by ramping up domestic production, expanding renewable capacity and deepening international cooperation.
Ankara has been seeking to diversify its energy mix and reduce its heavy reliance on imports by investing in exploration at home and abroad.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar says 2026 "will be the year we open a new era in oil and natural gas exploration."
Black Sea gas output set to double
Three years into Türkiye's launch of gas production from the vast gas reserve in the Black Sea, daily output reached around 10 million cubic meters (mcm) in 2025, enough to supply 4 million households.
That marked the completion of the first phase of the Sakarya gas field project. Production is expected to double in 2026, when Türkiye's first floating gas production platform, Osman Gazi, becomes operational in the second half of the year.
The Sakarya field is estimated to hold 710 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, discovered gradually between 2020 and 2022. Once fully developed, it is expected to meet roughly 30% of Türkiye's annual gas demand.
In mid-May, Türkiye also announced a separate 75 bcm gas discovery in the Black Sea.
Bayraktar said a second, higher-capacity floating production platform is scheduled to come online in 2028, allowing Türkiye to complete the first three phases of the Sakarya project and meet the gas needs of 17 million households.
Employment at the project is set to rise from 5,000 to 7,500 workers by March, he added.
Expanding offshore fleet, overseas exploration
In 2025, Türkiye added two new ultra-deepwater drilling ships, increasing its fleet to six drillships and making it the fourth-largest deep-sea energy fleet globally.
The broader energy fleet now includes 11 support vessels, one construction ship and one floating production platform.
Named Çağrı Bey and Yıldırım, the two new ships arrived in the second half of last year.
Yıldırım will join the Fatih, Yavuz, Kanuni and Abdülhamid Han drillships in the Black Sea within a few months, Bayraktar said.
Çağrı Bey will be deployed to Somalia in February to carry out Türkiye's first deepwater exploration project abroad, he noted.
He said the operation with the Çağrı Bey vessel will focus on offshore areas in Somali waters, but did not provide details on targeted reserves or investment size.
In 2024, Türkiye signed an energy exploration deal with Somalia.
Importing more than 90% of its energy needs, Türkiye is seeking to cut its import bill and boost supply security by developing domestic resources and expanding overseas partnerships.
Earlier this year, it began importing gas from Turkmenistan for the first time through a swap arrangement via Iran, adding to supplies from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, alongside liquefied natural gas imports.
According to Bayraktar, Türkiye plans to drill six new exploratory wells across the western, central and eastern Black Sea.
Oil output rises
Türkiye is also producing oil from the major reserve in the southeastern Gabar region, where the output has surpassed 80,000 barrels per day. Türkiye's total daily oil production reached 132,000 barrels.
Exploration continues in the region, where Bayraktar says more than 3,500 people are working at over 100 wells, while preparations are underway to begin shale oil production in southeastern Diyarbakır this year.
"Our work will continue until we make Türkiye energy independent," Bayraktar added.
Nuclear power comes online
This year will also see the launch of Türkiye's first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu.
The $20 billion (TL 858.51 billion), 4.8-gigawatt, four-reactor plant is being built by Russian conglomerate Rosatom in the Mediterranean province of Mersin. Once fully operational, it is expected to generate around 10% of Türkiye's electricity.
The project has faced several delays, including pandemic-related disruptions, delivery problems after Germany’s Siemens failed to supply key components, and financial hurdles caused by Russian funds frozen abroad.
Türkiye is also in talks with South Korea, China, Russia and the United States on nuclear projects in the Sinop province and Thrace region. Türkiye aims to reach 7.2 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035 and 20 GW by 2050. It plans to complement the three conventional nuclear plants with small modular reactors (SMRs).
Renewables drive capacity growth
In renewables, Türkiye plans new solar and wind tenders this year under its Renewable Energy Resource Zone (YEKA) auction mechanism.
Total installed electricity capacity reached 121,782 megawatts (MW) as of November, with renewables accounting for 75,615 MW, or roughly 62% of the total.
In 2025, Türkiye completed solar and wind tenders to allocate 3,800 MW of capacity, which it expects to generate a total investment value of about $4 billion.
The country aims to raise solar and wind capacity to 120,000 MW by 2035. To reach that goal, it needs to add at least 2,000 MW per year.
Electricity consumption has tripled over the past two decades and is expected to grow faster in the coming years as the energy transition accelerates.
The YEKA scheme was introduced in 2016 to facilitate land allocation for investors, ease the deployment of large projects and encourage the domestic production of renewable energy technologies.
The government later unveiled updates to the model to draw greater investor interest. Key enhancements included simplifying post-tender permitting procedures and introducing financial incentives like exemptions from transmission fees.