The Turkish energy minister said on Tuesday that Turkey and Iran would sign an energy deal on Wednesday.

Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said that Iran was a country rich of oil and natural resources.

"We are developing a framework agreement according to Iran's model where there is no transfer of property, and we hope we will sign it tomorrow," Yildiz told reporters in Tehran.

Yildiz is actually accompanying Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting the Iranian capital.

The Turkish energy minister also said Iranian company and Turkish Petroleum Corporation would make explorations in South Pars basin, and the exploration would begin either in the first or the second week of November.

Yildiz said Turkey would have the right to market and trade, and almost half of the natural gas would be sold either in Turkey or via Turkey.

"We foresee striking almost 35 billion cubic meters of gas," he also said.

Yildiz said South Pars project might cost over 4 billion USD.

The South Pars / North Dome field is a gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. This gas field covers an area of 9700 square kilometers, of which 3700 square kilometers (South Pars) is in Iranian territorial waters and 6000 square kilometers (North Dome) is in Qatari territorial waters.

Condensate production from South Pars is currently 200,000 bbl/d (32,000 m3/d), and by 2010, could increase to over 500,000 bbl/d (79,000 m3/d).

Also, Yildiz said Turkey was holding talks with Azerbaijan on natural gas, and hoped to reach an agreement soon.


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Güncelleme Tarihi: 27 Ekim 2009, 16:22