Turkey eyes Libyan oil fields
Turkey plans to acquire new oil fields in Libya at the Fizan block, the Sabah newspaper quoted Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz as saying on Monday, Trend news agency reported.
Yildiz said that after acquiring the new fields, Turkey will significantly reduce its dependence on Iranian oil, replacing it partially with the Libyan one.
Yildiz said that today Turkey exports one million tons of oil from Libya, but in the near future it intends to increase its imports from this country up to 1.5 million tons.
In addition, as Yildiz said, Turkey is also going to explore for oil in Algeria. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) plans to take part in a tender for oil exploration jointly with the Algerian state energy company Sonatrach.
Earlier in its report the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey (EPDK) said that oil imports into Turkey in October 2012 increased by one per cent compared to the previous month, amounting to 1.76 million tons.
Oil imports increased by five per cent in January-October 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, amounting to 16.2 million tons.