Turkey’s state-owned energy company, Turkish Petroleum (TPAO), has signed a memorandum of understanding with a subsidiary of US supermajor ExxonMobil for collaboration on oil and natural gas exploration in the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.
Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said the country looks to combine its technical expertise in deepwater exploration and drilling with ExxonMobil’s global experience to boost operational capabilities and prepare the way towards new discoveries.
“In line with our goal of a fully energy-independent Turkey, we are strengthening our capabilities through international collaborations and moving forward to becoming the energy hub of our region,” Bayraktar said.
TPAO is not the first Turkish company to sign an agreement with ExxonMobil. The state pipeline operator BOTAŞ signed an agreement in 2024 for the supply of LNG.
The country has been expanding offshore energy ops in both the Black Sea and Mediterranean. In the Black Sea, production from the Sakarya Gas Field, which was discovered in 2020 and holds 710 bcm of recoverable reserves, is growing.
At the moment, the field is producing around 9.5m cubic meters of gas per day, with plans to ramp up to 40 million by 2028.
The country’s national oil output rose by 26% year-on-year in 2025 to 47.9m barrels, while natural gas production increased by 39% to 3.2 bcm.