TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz underlined that his country does not plan to cut oil imports from Iran, reiterating that Ankara needs the Islamic Republics crude for its domestics needs.
Now we are importing about 5 million tons (100,000 bpd) and if we (reduce more) than that, then that would threaten our energy supply security, Yildiz said.
Earlier this year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will continue importing oil from Iran in coming years.
Addressing a meeting at the Brookings Institute in Washington on May 17, Erdogan said that Turkey's Iranian oil imports depend on its energy needs.
Turkey is one of the largest customers of Iranian oil together with Asian buyers such as
China, India, South Korea and Japan.
Iran, which owns the worlds second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is Turkeys second biggest gas supplier after Russia. Turkey uses a significant portion of its imported Iranian natural gas to generate electricity.