Turkey, a major buyer of oil and gas from Iran, has no plans to reduce its energy imports from the Persian country despite the growing prospect of tougher U.S. sanctions, Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz said in remarks published Thursday.
Turkey
, a
major buyer of oil and gas from
Iran
, has
no plans to reduce its energy imports from the Persian country despite the
growing prospect of tougher
U.S.
sanctions, Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz said in remarks published
Thursday.
"
Iran
is
the second largest gas supplier to
Turkey
and
the first in terms of oil supplies, therefore,
Turkey
is
not going to reduce the volume of energy resources imports from
Iran
,"
Mr. Yildiz said, according to the
Kuwait
official news agency.
Mr. Yildiz said in February that
Turkey
can't
cut to zero its energy purchases from
Iran
,
which meets 40% of the country's oil needs, despite the growing prospect of
tougher
U.S.
and
European Union sanctions on the trade with
Tehran
.
Turkey
,
which wants to diversify its natural gas and oil suppliers, imported around $6
billion worth of oil from
Iran
in
2012, he said at the time.
Mr. Yildiz's comments come as the
U.S.
and
Turkey
appear to be on a collision course over
Turkey
's
growing sales of gold to
Iran
. The
country acknowledged in November that a surge in its gold exports related to
payments for imports of Iranian natural gas. The
U.S.
congress and treasury have been focusing on cutting off this type of trade as
they believe it is becoming one of
Tehran
's
primary conduits for exporting natural gas and evading Western sanctions.
The
U.S.
senate December approved a measure that would tighten sanctions against
Iran
,
targeting suppliers of materials that could be used to build ships and taking
further aim at the country's port and energy businesses.
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