Türkiye to sign oil, gas exploration deals in Pakistan soon: Bayraktar

ANKARA

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Türkiye will soon sign agreements for certain oil and natural gas exploration fields in Pakistan.

In an interview with UAE-based Sky News Arabia, as detailed in a ministry statement, Bayraktar discussed Türkiye's oil and gas exploration efforts, natural gas and electricity exports to Syria and the Türkiye-Iraq Oil Pipeline.

Emphasizing the critical role of energy and water infrastructure in normalizing life in Syria, Bayraktar said, "On Aug. 2, we succeeded in delivering gas from Azerbaijan to Syria. The Qatar Development Fund also participated in this project. What started as a bilateral project has evolved into a multilateral and important humanitarian initiative."

He noted that the gas volume from Azerbaijan is around 3.4 million cubic meters daily, adding, "The pipeline's capacity is about 6 million cubic meters. We're working on how to increase this capacity to 6 million cubic meters. With this capacity, approximately 1,200 megawatts of electricity production can be achieved in Aleppo and Homs. Thus, electricity can be provided to about 5 million households in Syria."

Bayraktar expressed the aim of securing a reliable, long-term natural gas supply for electricity generation in Syria.

Currently, 281 megawatts of electricity are exported to Syria through eight connection points, Bayraktar said, adding, "We aim to increase this amount to 360 megawatts in the next few weeks. Our ultimate goal is to boost capacity from Birecik to Aleppo and export an additional 500 megawatts to Syria in the coming months. Some work needs to be done on Syrian soil for this connection. By the first quarter of next year, we will be able to export about 900 megawatts of electricity directly to Syria."

Bayraktar pointed out the need to modernize Syria's oil infrastructure and invest in it, saying, "We believe we can achieve this with our participation and contributions from international oil companies. Thus, we can meet sustainable electricity and basic infrastructure needs for the Syrian people."

Regarding the Türkiye-Iraq Oil Pipeline, Bayraktar noted its daily capacity of 1.5 million barrels but that it has never operated at full capacity in 50 years.

He mentioned informing the Iraqi government recently that the current agreement no longer meets expectations and fails to address today's energy needs, with a new draft sent.

"They are now reviewing the structure of the new draft. We hope technical teams will meet soon to start negotiations on the new agreement," he shared.

Bayraktar underlined the objective of utilizing the pipeline at full capacity.

Bayraktar described Türkiye's oil and gas exploration and production strategy as focusing not only on domestic output but also on overseas opportunities, saying, "We produce oil and natural gas in Azerbaijan. In Iraq, we currently produce a very small amount of oil. We have partnerships in three fields in Basra. We're also seeking opportunities in countries like Libya, Niger and Somalia. We sent our seismic vessel to Somalia's offshore areas."

"In Pakistan, we will soon sign agreements for some oil and natural gas exploration fields we won in a previous tender. The recent agreement with the Libyan government will allow us to explore new opportunities offshore Libya," he added.