Turkey and Brazil sign $800 mln Black Sea oil exploration agreement

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Gul said Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras and Turkey's state-run research company TPAO signed an agreement to invest $800 million in the offshore drilling project. 

Black Sea oil production will likely to be possible in the coming years, news agencies quoted the Turkish president as telling the joint press conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"We must take our relations to a new level," Gul also said after talks with the Brazilian head of state, the first to visit Turkey.

"There is great potential and we have to take advantage of it," Gul said, adding the value of trade between Turkey and Brazil totals just $2 billion annually.

Lula said his government wanted "Petrobras to become the world’s leading oil company... and for that to happen it has to invest and work in other countries."

Lula will conclude his visit to Turkey later Friday with a meeting with the head of the Turkish parliament and a dinner with Gul before leaving for Brazil at the end of a tour that has also taken him to Saudi Arabia and China.