Türkiye's new deep-drilling ship Çağrı Bey left for Somalia from the southern province of Mersin on Sunday to begin the operation for oil exploration, a top official said.

The vessel, which recently joined the growing domestic fleet, departed in the afternoon with a ceremony attended by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Somali officials.

It is the second Turkish vessel to be deployed in Somali waters after Oruç Reis. It is also the first drilling ship to be deployed outside Turkish waters, Bayraktar said in his remarks at the ceremony at Taşucu Port in Mersin's Silifke district on Sunday.

"A long way is awaiting Çağrı Bey," he said, suggesting that the vessel won't go through Suez but rather through the Atlantic, the western coast of Africa and then toward Mogadishu Port. He said the trip is expected to last 45 days.

The research and seismic vessel Oruç Reis was dispatched to Somalia from Istanbul in October 2024, and it completed its mission in the summer of last year.

Türkiye, which enjoys close ties with Somalia, has a strong cooperation with Mogadishu in a number of areas, from energy to defense to infrastructure investments. The two governments have signed several memoranda on cooperation in recent years.

The plan to send off Çağrı Bay to Somali waters comes amid Ankara's push to boost gas and oil exploration, both at home and abroad.

In a speech on Saturday, Bayraktar reiterated this view, suggesting that "another historic step" will be taken.

"Tomorrow, we will take another historic step. We will send off our Çağrı Bey vessel from Mersin Taşucu to Somalia, where we will search for oil," he told an event in Ankara.

"In this sense, 2026 will be a year of discoveries and good news for us," his ministry quoted him as saying.

In a speech at Ankara’s Kızılcahamam district, Bayraktar recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had set the goal of "carrying out initiatives that will make Türkiye absolutely energy independent."

"We will end Türkiye’s external dependency in this field, because if Türkiye becomes energy independent, it will be much stronger economically and will have a far stronger treasury," he said.

At the same time, he emphasized that domestic gas production in the Black Sea would be doubled this year.

"Black Sea gas is, of course, very important. We will persistently and determinedly continue exploration in the Black Sea," he added.

"We are also intensifying our efforts for new good news in different fields. This year, we will carry out drilling across the entire Black Sea, off the coasts of Rize, Giresun, Ordu, Samsun and Kastamonu, in order to discover new fields," he furthered.

Also touching upon operations related to the construction at Türkiye's first nuclear plant, Akkuyu, he said the goal is "to start generating energy from the first reactor within this year and to gradually commission the other reactors."

"Once all four reactors are operational, we will meet 10% of our electricity demand from here. With the Sinop and Thrace projects, Türkiye will become a country with a significant nuclear industry," he suggested.

On Sunday, the minister was on a visit to Mersin, where he visited the governorate and provincial offices of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Then he attended a ceremony that saw the seventh-generation drillship Çağrı Bey departing for Somalia.

Mersin is the southern province where Türkiye is building its first nuclear plant. On Sunday, Bayraktar described it as "the biggest project in the history of the Republic of Türkiye."

"Therefore, we have dedicated all our efforts to it," he said.