ANKARA, Turkey will continue to buy natural gas from Iran despite U.S. sanctions, Turkey's energy minister said on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump threatened that anyone trading with Iran will not do business with America.
However, Fatih Donmez said Turkey would continue to buy gas in line with its long-term supply deal with Tehran, and added that planned talks in Washington could produce a solution for the issue.
Turkey is dependent on imports for almost all of its energy needs and Iran is a key supplier of Ankara's natural gas and oil purchases. While the Turkish refiner Tupras has already cut back on oil shipments from Tehran, a complete halt of energy imports would be near impossible.
"A delegation of ours is in the United States right now and negotiations are being held on a series of matters including the sanctions issue," Donmez told broadcaster A Haber. "I think a good outcome will emerge from this dialogue."
A Turkish delegation is visiting Washington this week to discuss growing friction between the NATO allies, according to reports on Tuesday, while Washington said the two countries remained at odds on its core demand that Ankara free American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson.
Donmez said Turkey's long-term supply contract with the Islamic Republic was valid until 2026 and Ankara was set to buy the 9.5 billion cubic meter of the contract amount. "We will be continuing this trade as we can't possibly leave our citizens in dark," he said.
Nearly 40 percent of Turkey's electricity production is sourced with natural gas.
US President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme and said firms doing business with Tehran would be barred from the United States, as new U.S. sanctions against Iran took effect on Tuesday.
The sanctions target Iran's purchases of U.S. dollars, metals trading, coal, industrial software and the auto sector and did not include Iran's oil exports, but global oil prices rose on anticipation.
US sanctions on Iran's energy sector are set to be re-imposed after a 180-day "wind-down period" ending on Nov. 4.
"Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
Donmez described the sanctions as "unilateral".
"Even European Union (EU) is extremely annoyed by this. We are conducting legitimate trade here," he said. "And this is important for us in terms of supply security as well."
