Tripoli, 5 . . .[restrict]January 2013:
Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz is due in Tripoli tomorrow, Sunday, on the second leg of a three-state tour in pursuit of energy supplies. He is currently in Algeria and from Tripoli heads to Qatar.
While in the Libyan capital he will be holding talks with ministers about increasing oil purchases. Turkey needs to do so to offset increasingly lower imports from Iran as a result of US and EU sanctions.
The US has threatened legal action against foreign banks that have dealings with Iran’s central bank. It processes the sales of Iran’s hydrocarbon exports.
Turkey already has an agreement to buy a million tonnes of Libyan oil. It was announced by Yildiz in mid-June. But it apparently needs more.
“We can meet the oil demand (from) Libya now that supply from Iran is decreasing”, Yildiz said in the Algerian capital today. “The amount of oil we buy from there may increase to over a million tonnes”.
In Tripoli he is due to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Awad Al-Barasi as well as Oil Minister Abdelbari Al-Arusi, Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Ali Muhamed Muhairik,
Yildiz flies on to Qatar in Monday for talks about a joint venture liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the north side of the of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Turkey was also a major purchaser of Iranian gas.
It is also talking to Russia and Saudi Arabia about increasing oil purchases. [/restrict]
