Turkey intends to extend the agreement on the purchase of natural gas with Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, the head of the country's Energy Ministry Fatih Donmez said, TASS reported.

"Our main suppliers are Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. We intend to extend contracts with them for a new term. We seek to meet our energy needs," he said on Haber Global TV channel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed gas cooperation at the talks in Tehran on 19 July.

Cooperation in this field is one of the main areas of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Currently, Russia and Turkey are directly connected by the "Blue Stream" and "Turkish Stream" gas pipelines. At the end of 2021, 15.98 billion cubic meters of gas was delivered via Blue Stream to the Republic, which became the maximum indicator since the beginning of the operation of the main pipeline. In the first six months of the current year, Russia supplied almost 13 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey.