Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran is ready to double gas imports from Turkmenistan.
Iran's Natural Gas Storage Company's Managing Director Masoud Samivand said Iran has created necessary infrastructure for importing 80-90 million cubic meters of gas per day from Turkmenistan, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on May 10.
Iran gets Turkmen gas via several branches. The Korpeje - Kurt-Kui gas pipeline, commissioned in December 1995, is the main one. Its capacity was brought to eight billion cubic meters per year with the potential of increasing the capacity to 14 billion cubic meters. The Iranian National Gas Export Company acts as a gas buyer.
On May 4, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran is willing to pave the way for exporting goods to Turkmenistan in return for importing natural gas from that country.
Zanganeh made the remarks in a meeting with Turkmen Vice-President Khajeh Mohammadov in Tehran.
Responding to a question whether Iran has plans to export gas to Europe and thus challenge Russia as the major gas supplier, Zanganeh denied it.
The ground is well-prepared for barter trade with Turkmenistan, according to which Iran will export goods in return for purchase of the Turkmen gas, Zanganeh said.