Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Turkey has no plans to cut its crude oil imports from Iran, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.

On August 1 Yildiz noted that Turkey's oil imports from Iran stand between 5.5-6 million tons per day (around 105,000 barrels), noting, it "is not within our plans" to trim that figure.

The comment came a day after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to impose tougher sanctions against Iran's oil exports and other economic sectors.

The bill, which must be approved by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama to become law, seeks to cut Iran's oil exports by one million barrels per day over a year.

It also blacklists any business in Iran's automotive, mining and construction sectors and commits the United States to the goal of ending all Iranian oil sales worldwide by 2015.

Meanwhile, a Turkish official said on August 1 that Turkey would struggle to cut its crude oil imports from Iran any further, Lebanon Daily Star newspaper reported.

"Turkey has already cut the amount of oil it buys from Iran as much as possible. A further cut after this would greatly stretch Turkey," the official said.

Turkey's sole refiner Tupras has cut Iranian oil imports by around 40 percent to 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) and raised purchases from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq.

However, earlier in May, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara has not yet made any decision on cutting oil imports from Iran.

He said the level of oil imports from Iran depends on his country's energy demand.

The United States granted 180-day waivers on Iran oil sanctions to Turkey for the second time on December 7, 2012 after Ankara made initial cuts to its Iran oil imports.

Turkey has been importing an average of 100,000 bpd between September 2012 and February 2013, and in March increased purchases of Iranian oil to 114,000 bpd, despite U.S. sanctions against Iran's energy sector.

The United States and some of its Western allies have tightened economic sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear program. However, Iran denies the allegations, saying its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and making medical isotopes.