Türkiye's energy demand is set to triple over the next three decades, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Tuesday, stressing they are working to meet this increase through diversified energy sources, particularly renewable energy.
"Today, we consume around 350 terawatt-hours of electricity. We expect this to rise to 1,000 terawatt-hours within the next 30 years," Bayraktar told the opening ministerial panel of the Gastech 2025 forum in Milan, Italy.
The minister highlighted electrification as a key priority and said Türkiye aims to meet rising consumption primarily through renewable energy.
"We have ambitious renewable energy targets, planning to quadruple our installed renewable capacity by 2035. But we also need other sources of energy. We need natural gas, and we need nuclear power," Bayraktar said.
Türkiye is building a large-scale nuclear power plant and plans to install at least 5 gigawatts of small modular reactors (SMRs) over the next 30 years.
It currently has around 36,000 MW of installed wind and solar capacity. To achieve the 2035 goal, the government plans to hold capacity allocation tenders of 2,000 MW each year.
Türkiye has limited oil and natural gas resources and suffers from a high current account deficit due to vast energy imports. It has been incentivizing private sector investments in renewable power plants and has sought to develop domestic resources and expand international partnerships in oil and gas exploration.
Its electricity consumption has tripled in the last two decades and is expected to increase even faster in the coming years due to the long-term energy transformation, which involves replacing fossil fuel energy with electricity.
Bayraktar recalled Türkiye's landmark natural gas discovery in the Black Sea five years ago.
"Today, we are producing gas from this field, supplying 4 million households. But we need more, which is why we are ramping up production in the Black Sea," he said.
The Sakarya Gas Field is estimated to contain 710 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas. The reserve was gradually discovered between 2020 and 2022. It will meet approximately 30% of the nation's annual gas needs once the production reaches total capacity.
In mid-May, Türkiye announced the discovery of a new reserve of 75 bcm in the Black Sea.
Bayraktar added that Türkiye is also pursuing partnerships on different projects in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Separately on Tuesday, Turkish state energy company BOTAŞ and BP signed a three-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchase agreement.
Under the agreement, Türkiye will receive 1.6 billion cubic meters of LNG annually, Bayraktar said. He emphasized that this cooperation is particularly significant for ensuring supply security during winter months, enhancing source diversification and strengthening commercial flexibility.
At the forum in Milan, Bayraktar underlined significant investment in gas infrastructure and said Türkiye aims to store 12 billion cubic meters of gas – equal to 20% of our annual demand – within the country.
"We have also expanded our regasification capacity fivefold over the past seven to eight years. This allows us not only to strengthen our own energy security but also to deliver more gas to European markets through Türkiye," Bayraktar said.
