U.S. threatens Turkey over energy support to Iran

The State Department has criticized Turkey for its agreement for natural gas cooperation with Tehran. A senior official pointed out that the Congress was working on legislation that would sanction Ankara or others that help develop Iran's energy sector, The World Tribune reported.

"The U.S. government's policy is that countries should not be stimulating their companies to be involved in oil and gas investment in Iran," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.

Burns said the Bush administration has stressed to U.S. allies that sanctions on Iran would be strengthened.

Over the last two months, Turkey has agreed to develop three southern Iranian gas fields and establish three gas-operated energy plants.

Turkmenistan raised natural gas production by 11 percent in the first eight months of 2007 compared with the same period last year.

Switzerland keen to carry Caspian gas to Europe

Walter Steinmann, the Swiss energy minister said his country is ready to transfer gas of Iran and Azerbaijan to Europe.

Steinmann said in an interview with "Trend Capital" that the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and Storage Projects have been launched by the Swiss energy company EGL. The company intends to realize both projects in cooperation with partners. At present we are not aware of any other projects, he said.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will open up a new supply corridor for the transportation of natural gas from the significant reserves in Iran, the Caspian Sea region and Russia to Western Europe, especially Italy and Switzerland. An additional natural gas corridor to Europe would increase the security of gas supplies for Switzerland, he added.

Turkmenistan raises gas, oil output

Turkmenistan exports more than 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It produces about 200,000 barrels of crude per day.

Oil production grew 9 percent in January through August compared with the same period last year, state television said. Oil refining volumes increased by 2 percent in the period, Reuters reported.

Russia to increase gas exports to APR states

Total Russian exports of natural gas to Asian-Pacific countries may grow to 25-50 billion cu. m., exports of liquefied natural gas will total 21 billion cu. m. in 2020 and grow to 28 billion cu. m. by 2030, FIS reported.

These figures are contained in the Minpromenergo-approved program on the development of a unified gas production, transportation and supply system in the Russian Far East with regard to possible gas exports to China and APR countries.

Russian $94b gas plan

The Russian government has approved a 2.4 trillion ruble ($94 billion) program to tap eastern Siberia's vast gas fields and build storage and pipelines to meet growing domestic and Asian demand for fuel.

Of the amount, 1.3 trillion rubles will have to be invested in gas production and processing by 2020, Oleg Ivanov, deputy head of long-term planning at Gazprom, said in a statement from the Industry and Energy Ministry. The ministry approved Gazprom's program earlier last week, Bloomberg reported.

HL/KK

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MNA