Turkey eyes Iran's South Pars gas field

TEHRAN, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The Turkish government aims to invest as much as $4 billion to develop the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, a deputy oil minister said.

Ibrahim Radafzoun, the deputy oil minister of Iran, told the Fars News Agency that Turkey was interested in developments at the largest gas field in the world.

"The investment (by Turkey) will be made in phases 6 and 7 of South Pars gas field," he said.

South Pars holds an estimated 450 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, which represents about 47 percent of the total reserves in Iran.

Radafzoun's comments came during a visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish premier arrived in Tehran on Monday to discuss diplomatic and commercial interests.

Iran is keen to boast of the interest of foreign companies in its energy sector amid punitive economic sanctions for its controversial nuclear program.

Turkey, for its part, is pushing to position itself as a regional energy hub, hosting the planned South Stream and Nabucco natural gas pipelines for Europe as well as regional oil arteries.