ANKARA - ''Norwegian Statoil and Turkish Petroleum Corp. (TPAO) will jointly explore and extract oil in Iraq and other countries,'' said Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler.
Guler who went to Norway as the guest of Norwegian Minister of Petroleum & Energy Thorhild Widvey returned to Turkey on Friday.
Guler told reporters that Statoil has a very high technology and it is interested in privatization of electricity and natural gas institutions in Turkey.
Noting, ''there are cooperation opportunities for renewable energy investments with Norway which generates nearly all of its electricity at hydroelectric power plants,'' Guler said, ''we have discussed cooperation opportunities between Statoil and TPAO to jointly explore, extract and operate oil and gas resources in Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and other regional countries. Talks will continue.''
Guler said, ''Statoil is also interested in the project for transfer of Caspian Sea natural gas, which is produced under the Shah Sea Project, to Europe. Turkey takes LPG mainly from Norway. We prepare a law which will liberalize LPG market.''
(GC-MS) 22.10.2004