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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