Turkey Orders $350 Mln LNG From Qatar

Posted: Thursday, December 5, 2013

Turkey has ordered five cargoes of liquefied natural gas imports from Qatar worth $350 million due to expected cold weather in the coming days, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Thursday.

Mr. Yildiz told reporters at a news conference that Turkey now doesn't need to increase or reduce its crude oil imports from Iran .

Turkey 's reliance on Iranian oil has dropped from depending on it for more than half its needs to 15% this year because of sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.

Recently, Iran and six world powers made an interim agreement which provides modest sanctions relief in exchange for Iran freezing parts of its nuclear program that the West suspects are aimed at making a nuclear weapon.

Mr. Yildiz said he expects Turkey 's gold for energy exchange program with Iran to begin again once the sanctions are lifted and normal relations resume.

Last year, Turkey 's government exported huge amounts of gold to pay Iran for natural gas and oil, bypassing the sanctions designed to prevent Iran from receiving payments under the international financial system.

(DowJones)