[caption id="attachment_28364" align="alignright" width="180"]
Iranian gas refinery[/caption]Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz says his country will continue importing natural gas from neighboring Iran.
"Iran is our neighbor and brother country. We will continue our natural gas trade, he told Turkish-language news network Kanal 24 on Monday.
Yildiz further noted that USD 4.5 billion had been paid to state-owned Turkish Halkbank for natural gas purchased from Iran, and USD 3.1 billion for Iranian crude oil which the Turkeys only oil refiner, Tupras, bought in 2013.
On November 15, Yildiz said his country had no intention to make further reductions in its oil imports from Iran despite pressure from the United States.
We have reduced our imports to 105,000 barrels a day from 140,000 barrels. We cannot reduce it anymore, he said in Ankara.
On November 26, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country can become an energy corridor for its eastern oil- and gas-rich neighbor, Iran.
Turkeys annual energy demand is USD 60 billion. Turkey is a corridor country, Iran is a producer country. If we fuse both potentials, Turkey could become the corridor for energy provider, Iran, Davutoglu said.
In October, the Turkish minister of energy and natural resources said Turkey will raise its gas imports from Iran - currently standing at 10 billion cubic meters a year - if possible.
Iran is Turkeys second biggest gas supplier after Russia. Turkey uses a significant portion of its imported Iranian natural gas to generate electricity.
By Press TV
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