Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks throughout a ceremony for the handover of recent autos to the gendarmerie and police forces in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 28, 2025. Picture: REUTERS/Murad Sezer
i24 News – Turkey has dispatched a drilling vessel to Somalia to start offshore oil exploration, marking what officers describe as a historic step in Ankara’s drive to strengthen power safety and scale back reliance on imports.
Turkish Minister of Vitality and Pure Assets Alparslan Bayraktar introduced that the drilling ship Çagri Bey is ready to sail from the port of Taşucu in southern Turkey, heading towards Somali territorial waters.
The vessel will go by way of the Strait of Gibraltar and across the coast of southern Africa earlier than reaching its vacation spot, with drilling operations anticipated to start in April or Could.
Bayraktar described the mission as a “historic” milestone, saying it displays Turkey’s long-term technique to boost nationwide power safety and transfer nearer to self-sufficiency.
The operation shall be protected by the Turkish Naval Forces, which can deploy a number of naval models to safe each the vessel’s route and the drilling space within the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. The safety preparations fall beneath current cooperation agreements between Ankara and Somalia.
The transfer aligns with a broader imaginative and prescient promoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, aimed toward decreasing Turkey’s dependence on international power provides, boosting home manufacturing, and shielding the financial system from exterior pressures.
Bayraktar stated Turkey can also be working to double its pure fuel output within the Black Sea this 12 months, whereas persevering with offshore exploration alongside its northern shoreline. In parallel, Ankara is getting ready to deliver its first nuclear reactor on-line on the Akkuyu Nuclear Energy Plant, which is anticipated to start producing electrical energy quickly and ultimately provide about 10% of the nation’s power wants.
The present drilling effort relies on survey information collected final 12 months and varieties a part of Ankara’s wider plan to broaden its power exploration actions each regionally and internationally.
