Turkish Petroleum Corporation to begin buying shares in foreign firms

Türkiye’s state-owned upstream oil and gas company will start acquiring shares in foreign companies as part ‌of Ankara’s plans to develop international partnerships to boost its energy exploration, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Monday.

Bayraktar’s remarks came shortly after the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) signed a preliminary ⁠agreement with French oil major TotalEnergies to explore Türkiye’s Black Sea waters for hydrocarbons.

That marked the fifth similar accord signed by the Turkish firm with oil majors this year.

“Soon, we will turn a new page too. And that is this: as TPAO, we will enter yet another ‌new ⁠area by buying shares of companies abroad,” Bayraktar told the private broadcaster TV100 without elaborating.

He said the agreement with TotalEnergies would allow the two companies to carry out ⁠exploration in Angola, adding Ankara also aimed to increase its operations in Libya and Pakistan in coming ⁠months.

Meanwhile, a TPAO-owned drilling ship docked at the port of Mogadishu on Friday ahead of Somalia’s first offshore oil drilling project.

A hydrocarbon development deal signed in 2024 granted the company the right to explore three offshore blocks of around 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) each.

That will mark Türkiye’s “first overseas deep-sea drilling” operations outside its own waters, Bayraktar said.

Türkiye has been pushing to develop its domestic resources via international partnerships, including with U.S. major ⁠Exxon, to boost security of supply and become a regional exporter.

Black Sea is home to Türkiye’s largest-ever natural gas reserve that the country gradually discovered since 2020.

The Sakarya gas field is estimated to contain 710 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas. It will meet approximately 30% of the nation’s annual gas needs once the production reaches total capacity.

Last year, Türkiye announced a separate 75 bcm gas discovery in the Black Sea.

Daily output at the Sakarya field stands at around 10 million cubic meters (mcm), enough to supply 4 million households. 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.

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. The output is expected to eventually reach 40 mcm a day.

DAILYSABAH