Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has agreed to comply with international sanctions
and reduce crude oil imports from neighboring Iran.

Officials said Turkey’s oil refinery would reduce crude oil imports from Iran by 22 percent in 2013.

They said Ankara would compensate through deliveries from Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

“We have diversified crude oil sources, and the decrease in Iran supplies is being compensated for by purchases from Saudi Arabia and Iraq,” Yavuz Erkut, chief executive officer of the state-owned Tupras refinery authority, said.

Under the decision, Turkey would import 5.6 million tons of crude from Iran in 2013. On June 27, Erkut said Ankara was negotiating for delivery of one million tons from Libya.

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