Turkey is negotiating an agreement with Turkmenistan to extend a natural gas supply deal for five years, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the Hurriyet daily on Tuesday, noting that the deal is expected to be finalized within the year.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz are scheduled to meet officials from Turkmenistan in Ankara later in the day.
Earlier this month, Bayraktar said that Turkey and Turkmenistan had signed a deal for the supply of Turkmen natural gas to Turkey. The agreement, between Turkey's state-owned pipeline operator BOTAS and Turkmenistan's Turkmengaz, is set to begin on March 1, with gas flows of 1.3 billion cubic meters via Iran.
"We want to do this long-term. We have a long-term goal of a swap agreement. We are working on a programme that will likely extend to a five-year swap agreement within this year," Hurriyet quoted Bayraktar as saying.
Turkey consumes more than 50 billion cubic metres of gas every year, and relies on a mix of piped gas from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, along with liquefied natural gas imports from various suppliers.
Bayraktar said that Turkey aimed to sign a licence for oil and gas exploration in Somali land blocks on March 1. Turkey is conducting exploration off Somalia as part of an agreement with its East African ally.