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2 September 2012 - 14:55

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi announced that Turkey's private sector continues buying Iranian crude regardless of the western sanctions against the country's oil industry.

"Turkey has remained a customer of Iranian oil as in the past," Qassemi said after his talks with Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz in Tehran on Saturday.

He also said that negotiations with Turkish government on Iranian gas exports were positive.

Qassemi added that Iran would study growth in gas exports to Turkey and export of Iranian gas to Europe via Turkish territory.

Iran announced in July that the necessary grounds have been paved for the export of the country's gas supplies to the European countries via Turkey, despite the new EU sanctions against Tehran.

"In addition to the agreement signed for the export of gas to Pakistan and Iraq, the permission to export gas to Europe via Turkey has also been taken," Qassemi said at the time.

The plan to transit Iran's gas to Europe through Turkey came after the failure of negotiations on the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline, which prompted some European companies to officially ask for importing Iran's natural gas.

The Nabucco pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline which starts from Turkey's Erzurum to end in Austria's Baumgarten an der March and aims to reduce Europe's gas dependence on Russia.

The Iranian minister further said that the country's gas production capacity will double by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2015) once the development plans of the phases of the South Pars gas field are implemented.
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News ID 182589