Turkey announced that it won’t stop buying natural gas from Iran because it has a long-term supply contract.
According to Reuters, Turkey’s energy minister announced Turkey’s decision on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump threatened that anyone trading with Iran will not do business with America. Turkey, who is NATO member, is heavily contingent on imports for almost all of its energy needs and Iran is a long-time key supplier of Ankara’s natural gas and oil purchases. Although now the Turkish refiner Tupras is producing enough in order to reduce some of the oil imports from Tehran, a complete halt of energy imports would be near impossible.
Reuters reported that Energy Minister Fatih Donmez told A Haber broadcaster that he expected Ankara’s talks with Washington on the issue to yield a positive outcome.
“A delegation of ours is in the United States right now and negotiations are being held on a series of matters including the sanctions issue,” Donmez told broadcaster A Haber. “I think a good outcome will emerge from this dialogue.”
Meanwhile, a Turkish envoy is set to visit Washington this week as part of the discussion over the growing tension between NATO allies. However, Washington stated that the two countries won’t solve anything if Ankara doesn’t free American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson. Donmez said Turkey’s long-term supply contract with the Islamic Republic was valid until 2026 and Ankara was set to buy the 9.5 billion cubic meter of the contract amount.
“We will be continuing this trade as we can’t possibly leave our citizens in dark,” he said.
Nearly 40 percent of Turkey’s electricity production is sourced from natural gas, Reuters informs.
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