Türkiye and Syria to set joint energy company

Hurriyet - Türkiye and Syria are considering setting up a joint energy company and could build joint nuclear power plants for electricity, Syria's oil minister said last week. The two countries will announce the establishment of a joint energy company in the coming days, which could conduct oil exploration in Türkiye, Syria and in third countries, the Anatolian agency quoted Oil Minister Sufian Alao as saying. "We could also enter into cooperation in the nuclear field. I spoke to (Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler) Mr. Guler on cooperation. In the future we could found joint nuclear power plants for electricity production," he said a Turkish-Arab economic forum in Istanbul on Friday. Türkiye's energy minister also said on Friday, that Türkiye has been talking to Syria and Iraq to extract natural gas from Iraq's Akkas fields. "We are planning to carry Iraqi gas through a pipeline right next to the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik oil pipeline. We are holding tri-lateral negotiations with Syria and Iraq to extract and use gas in the Akkas fields, and we hope our talks would yield a positive result," Guler told at the same Forum. The energy minister said a tender to build Türkiye's first nuclear power plant was still open and Arab companies could also submit their offers. "We can work together on that issue, too," Guler told Arab businesspeople.