Türkiye in talks with Exxon Mobil for LNG deal: Minister

Türkiye is in talks with U.S. energy company ExxonMobil over a multibillion-dollar deal to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG), Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has told the Financial Times.

Türkiye is seeking to build a "new supply portfolio" that will make it less reliant on any single partner, the minister told in an interview with the newspaper.

Türkiye would secure up to 2.5mn tons of LNG a year through the long-term deal under discussion with Exxon, Bayraktar said, adding that the pact could last for a decade.

Bayraktar said the commercial terms of the Exxon deal were still under discussion.

Last year, Türkiye imported 5mn tons of LNG from the U.S. on the "spot" market where energy is bought and sold for imminent delivery, Bayraktar said.

Ankara is seeking to "diversify" its natural gas supplies before some of its long-term contracts with Russia expire in 2025 and those with Iran expire the following year, Bayraktar said.

Russia, which is Türkiye's largest supplier of natural gas and oil, is building the country's first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast.

Russia, along with South Korea, both have "serious interest" in a similar nuclear project on the Black Sea, Bayraktar told the Financial Times.

"For security of supply, we need to get gas from somewhere. It could be from Russia, it could be from Azerbaijan, it could be Iran or LNG options," Bayraktar said, adding that "we need to look at the competitiveness edge; which gas is cheaper?"

He also said that Türkiye may later this year begin exploring for oil in the Black Sea as well.

Local oil and natural gas projects have the potential to be "quite a game-changer for us," Bayraktar said.