A European Union energy official said Thursday Turkey was "a key country" in carrying oil and natural gas resources of the Caspian region to the western markets.
"Turkey is one of the key countries in Euro-Caspian energy plans and we would like to see Turkey among us to increase the capacity in this region," Jean Arnold Vinois, head of EU's Energy Policy and Security of Supply Unit, told an international conference in Turkish capital on oil and natural gas.
Vinois said the EU needed to diversify its energy routes and resources for a continued supply flow and security, reported Haberturk.
"The EU is heavily dependant on Russia, which is very risky as we saw with the recent crisis in January. We need to diversify resources south of Russia, and we need direct accesses to gas in the Caspian and the Mediterranean," Vinois said.
"Both the EU and Turkey needs gas and we need to improve the southern energy corridor," he said.