Türkiye, Venezuela discuss oil and gas cooperation opportunities

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez have discussed new opportunities for cooperation in the exploration, production and trade of natural gas and oil.

Bayraktar met with the Venezuelan committee in the Turkish capital Ankara, the Turkish minister said on X.

Highlighting the importance of energy cooperation in the strong and ongoing Turkish-Venezuelan bilateral relations, Bayraktar said, "The memorandum of understanding we signed in Caracas last January in the fields of oil and natural gas will further improve our existing relations."

Türkiye and Venezuela "agreed to take concrete steps within the framework of this agreement and to develop new cooperation in natural gas and oil exploration, production and trade," Bayraktar added.

Earlier this year, following a meeting with the oil-rich country's president, Nicolas Maduro, in the capital Caracas, Bayraktar had pledged to deepen cooperation with Venezuela in energy and mining.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz also met with Rodriguez to discuss bilateral relations as well as regional and global issues.

"In our meeting, we evaluated bilateral relations between our countries and regional and global issues, agreeing to enhance our cooperation in the fields of energy, tourism, and education," Yilmaz said on X.

"In the coming period, we need to further develop our commercial relations to increase our trade volume to $3 billion," Yılmaz said.