ASHKHABAD - Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler has said that Turkey was determined to purchase natural gas from Turkmenistan.
Guler, who is currently in Turkmenistan on an official visit, met with Power Engineering and Industry Minister Atamyrat Berdiyev of Turkmenistan on Tuesday.
Later, Guler visited Saparmurat Niyazov State Electricity Power Station in Abadan town of Ashkhabad.
Guler told reporters, ''I came to Turkmenistan to represent Turkey in the ceremonies to be held on February 19 to mark the birthday of President Turkmenbasi. During the visit, I held talks with Turkmen officials about electricity energy.''
Reminding that he had held talks with Power Engineering and Industry Minister Berdiyev about natural gas, Guler said, ''during the meeting, I said that Turkey was determined to purchase natural gas from Turkmenistan.''
Guler underlined that Turkey was a corridor country in export of Turkmen natural gas to Europe.
Guler, who is expected to be received by President Saparmurat Turkmenbasi on February 18, said, ''we will tell President Turkmenbasi that Turkey was determined to purchase natural gas from Turkmenistan.''
Guler said that he felt sad about delay in transportation of Turkmen natural gas via Turkey to Europe and noted that they wanted to take a new step now.
''In fact, we have started to purchase natural gas transformed into electricity energy. Electricity energy imported from Turkmenistan is produced from natural gas. If we had also taken natural gas, we would have produced electricity,'' he noted.
Stating that Turkey had suffered a lot from being dependent on small number of resources in the past, he said that they would increase this diversity with Turkmen natural gas.
Guler said that there was not any problem on transportation of Turkmen electricity energy via Iran and stated that talks on natural gas continued with Iran and they focused on decrease in prices.
Stating that after the agreement signed with Russia, Iranian natural gas came to Turkey with high prices, Guler said that they applied for price revision in July, but they could not take any result on the issue yet. Guler added that they would work for this issue to be solved in good will.
(UK-EÖ-AÖ) 17.02.2004