Turkey is set to hold talks with regional rival United Arab Emirates over investment in its energy sector, Turkey’s Deputy Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Tuesday, amid a thaw in relations between the countries.
Bayraktar made the remarks during the world’s largest gas expo, the Gastech 2021 conference, in Dubai, where hundreds of executives are in attendance, Dünya newspaper reported.
Turkey and the UAE in recent months have called a truce to their rivalry, after their ties affected by regional tensions, including the conflict in Libya, where they have backed opposing sides in recent years.
Last month, Emirati national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, marking the highest-level public visit by an Emirati official to Turkey in years. After the meeting, Erdoğan said that the two countries had made progress in improving relations, which could lead to significant UAE investment in Turkey.
Talks with UAE officials on investment in Turkey’s energy sector are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Dünya cited Bayraktar as saying.
Turkey’s natural gas consumption is expected to be 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) this year, the energy official said, noting that increasing natural gas prices would pose a challenge for the country.
The country ranked as the seventh largest gas-consumer in the world with 47.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) of consumption in 2020, according to data of the Natural Gas Distribution Companies Association of Turkey (GAZBİR) on May 25.
Ahval