We are talking with Libya, Saudi Arabia and Russia for oil

In addition to Libya, Saudi Arabia, talks are going on also with Russia in order to compensate the reduced oil purchases from Iran, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said. In June, USA excluded Turkey and some other countries from sanctions towards Iran. The United States gave several countries sanction waivers after they cut imports prior to the imposition of the full embargo. Turkey was granted a 180-day exception from sanctions from June 11 as a result of an initial 20 percent cut. Yildiz said Turkey had started buying oil from Saudi Arabia on the spot market in addition to purchases from Libya, and that its sole refiner Tupras hoped to reach an agreement with Riyadh on long-term import contracts later this year. "One of our core strategies is to increase the number of supplier countries and alternative routes. We buy oil from 11 countries and natural gas from five. We aim to increase that to 13, or 15 if possible," Yildiz said in an interview. "We bought 1 million tonnes of oil from Libya and have also started spot buying 1 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia. Tupras is in talks with Saudi Arabia over long-term contracts and I think they'll conclude this year," he said. Western sanctions aim to curb Iran's ability to pursue its nuclear ambitions by cutting off its main revenue stream from crude oil sales. "I don't expect we will need to lower the amount of oil we buy from Iran again this year," Yildiz said, when asked how much further Turkey would need to cut Iranian imports in order to win the right to continue importing in 2013. A U.S. diplomat said in June that Washington would press Turkey to follow up on that initial cut with a further cut once the 180-day period ran out. "There may be fluctuations on oil purchases, but Iran remains one of our most important suppliers," Yildiz said.