Turkey courts allies for natural gas

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ANKARA, Turkey, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Turkey said it was talking with Qatar and reached a multiyear deal with an Algerian company for natural gas to add diversity to the national energy sector.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz signed a 10-year deal with Algeria's state-owned energy company Sonatrach for liquefied natural gas deliveries, reports Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman.

The Turkish government gets more than 90 percent of its natural gas from foreign suppliers and the deal is a move to diversify an energy sector that depends in part on Russia. The Algerian deal secures LNG deliveries equivalent to 140 billion cubic feet per year.

Yildiz added that Turkey may look to Qatar to help build a third LNG terminal near the Turkish borders with Bulgaria and Greece.

"It will help meet the needs of Greece and Bulgaria and reduce shipments through the straits" of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, he was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying.

The terminal, if constructed, could handle as much as 210 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Qatar is the world's largest LNG producer.