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Tehran is eyeing an investment deal with Turkish private companies to build a power plant in the Islamic Republic, an Iranian energy official said. Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian has said that the $3 billion worth deal envisages building a 5,000 megawatt power plant in the country, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Houshang Falahatian said that the investment agreement will be inked within the coming days. Following the removal of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the Turkish energy sector has expressed high interested in cooperation with Iran, the deputy minister said. He added that Tehran and Ankara are in talks over more agreements that have not been finalized yet.

The Iranian official further said that according to a recent agreement signed between Tehran and Ankara the neighboring countries are planning to increase power trade to 1,200 MW within the next a year and a half. Under the terms of the deal the figure is expected to reach 3,000 MW in future. While Tehran and Ankara intend to raise their bilateral trade to $30 billion per year, their trade turnover stood at $13.71 billion in 2014 and $9.76 billion in 2015.

Although the trade turnover dropped by 29 percent in 2015 compared to the preceding year, many observers believe that the decline came amid global economic crisis ruling out the role of the political disagreements.

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