Iran-Turkey ties unaffected by sanctions

Turkey says economic sanctions imposed against Iran by the United Nations have not affected Tehran-Ankara agreements in oil and gas projects.

“Turkey cannot be indifferent to Iran’s resources. We buy natural gas from five countries, one of them is Iran,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying by Hurriyet daily on Monday.

The minister also said that his country aims to cooperate with Iran in other natural gas and oil projects through the private sector.

“Iran has offered four to five fields. We will call on the private sector in Turkey to invest in them, which will require an investment of approximately USD 400 million to USD 500 million,” Yildiz said.

Earlier this month, Yildiz met with Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi in the Iranian capital city of Tehran to discuss the export of Iran’s natural gas to Europe via Turkey.

Iran plans to provide Europe with natural gas via a pipeline scheduled to become operational in 2014 with the name Persian Pipeline.

On Saturday, Iran announced that it had discovered seven gas fields over a nine-month period between March and December of 2010.

Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is Turkey’s second-biggest supplier after Moscow.