Tehran said Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Ankara to export Iranian natural gas to Europe through Turkey, a news agency said, after Turkey vowed to support an Iranian bid to join the Nabucco pipeline.
The Mehr news agency said Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz signed an MoU of energy cooperation, by which Turkey would transit Iranian gas to Europe and invest in the Iranian gas and petrochemicals sectors.
The framework agreement was signed during an official visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Iran.
Mehr didn't provide more details about Turkey's transit plans but the MoU comes after Erdogan gave its support to Iran's ambition to join the European Union-backed Nabucco gas pipeline project.
The 3,300-kilometer pipeline aims to carry natural gas from Central Asia via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.
In July, Turkey and four EU countries--Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria--agreed to allow the pipeline to cross their territories.
Iran wants to provide gas but Europe is reluctant to rely on the Islamic republic until tensions with the West over its nuclear program have been resolved.
The Mehr news agency also said that Iran had agreed to delay by three months a deadline to sign a $4 billion investment by Turkey into the giant South Pars gas field.
Last week, Iran had given a one-month ultimatum to Turkey to finalize an investment in phases 6 and 7 of the development of the field.
The South Pars gas field is estimated to hold about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about 8% of the world's total reserves.