Turkey asks to increase gas imports from Iran

Turkey has asked Iran to increase its natural gas exports to its Northwestern neighbor, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said.Oji said Iran's current gas exports to Turkey stands at 24 million cubic meters per day on average, and expressed Tehran's readiness to provide Ankara with more natural gas. "I do not have any exact information on the issue," Mahmoud Nami, press counselor at the Iranian Embassy in Ankara, told the Hurriyet Daily News yesterday, when asked on whether Iran and Turkey are holding talks to expand the latter's natural gas imports from Iran. Iran is ready to boost its gas exports to neighboring Turkey, once Turkey's state-run pipeline company BOTA? has completed its deal with Russia's Gazprom, Javad Oji, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, told MNA, according to Tehran Times. Iran, which owns 15.8 percent of natural gas reserves, the second largest provider after Russia, produces 138billion cubic meters of natural gas yearly. It exports an average volume of 5.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey annually.