Turkey Announces Effort to Conclude an Agreement with Syria on Offshore Energy Exploration in 2026

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said that his country is seeking to conclude an agreement with Syria during 2026 aimed at exploring offshore energy resources.

Bayraktar explained, in an interview with the Turkish news website “GDH,” that Turkey and Syria have a general framework agreement, noting that offshore exploration requires a separate and specific agreement. He added: “We hope to conclude this agreement in 2026,” clarifying that signing the agreement does not necessarily mean that drilling operations would begin immediately, as seismic studies to gather information about the nature of the seabed may precede them.

Turkey and Syria had signed an agreement last May to enhance cooperation in the fields of energy, mining, and hydrocarbons. Bayraktar said at the time that the agreement constitutes an important roadmap for the next steps between the two countries in these sectors.

Turkey relies heavily on energy imports to meet its needs, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly stresses his country’s pursuit of achieving self-sufficiency in the energy sector.

This approach comes in the context of Ankara’s previous attempts to explore energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the region witnessed tensions in the summer of 2020 between Turkey on one side and Greece and the European Union on the other, against the backdrop of exploration operations in disputed areas.

In August of that year, France sent two Rafale fighter jets and two warships to the Eastern Mediterranean in support of Greece, following the sailing of the Turkish research vessel Oruç Reis in an area disputed between Ankara and Athens.