ANKARA - Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said on Monday that his ministry would carry out joint energy projects with Syrian Oil Ministry.
Guler, who returned from Syrian capital Damascus where he attended the ninth ministerial meeting of Interconnection Project covering six countries, told reporters that Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq had attended the meeting.
He held several meetings with Syrian Oil Ministry, Guler said.
Guler noted that a memorandum of understanding covering eight issues was signed at the end of their meetings.
The most important issue in the memorandum of understanding was joint projects to be carried out in fields of natural gas and oil, Guler stressed.
Guler stated that Syria laid down several proposals about not only Turkey's domestic market but also transportation of Syrian natural gas to Europe via Turkey in the meetings.
Turkish Oil Corp. (TPAO) continued studies on oil, Guler pointed out.
Guler said that Turkey and Syria would also continue studies on industrial minerals.
They would form a working group for industrial use of phosphate, Guler noted.
Guler said that they would also work to enrich iron ore.
They also discussed improvement of electricity system, Guler stated.
Guler emphasized that Turkey's priority was to become a member of Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), a union where electricity system of European countries were operated altogether, as soon as possible.
Asked if water issue came onto agenda in his meetings, Guler said that water was not on agenda in their meetings and that Syria did not need it at the moment.
Guler stated that Turkey discussed water issue with other Arab countries and added, ''we think of giving 40 percent water to Israel and we are negotiating with other countries whether we can sell the rest 40 percent of water.''
Asked if there was a problem in transportation with Israel, Guler said, ''there is not such problem. We will go and we will probably meet at the end of November or the first week of December. We will set the date.''
(BRC-AÖ) 03.11.2003