Gas export to Turkey from Iran resumed Sunday after twelve days of disruption due to an explosion that damaged the pipeline between the two countries.
The Turkish pipeline operator, Botas, informed National Iranian Gas Company on Sunday that it has repaired the pipeline and is ready to receive Iranian natural gas.
An overnight blast on August 25, allegedly carried out by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), forced Turkish authorities to shut down the conduit in the country's eastern city of Agri, which borders Iran.
A similar blast occurred on July 21 at another section of the pipeline close to the eastern Turkish town of Dogubayazit, near Iran's border. The explosion halted gas flows and it took 10 days to fix the pipeline.
Turkey agreed in 1996 to buy from Iran 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for 25 years. Iran is Turkey's second largest supplier of natural gas after Russia. Turkey uses Iranian gas to fire half of its power plants.
Iran's gas exports to Turkey in 2009 amounted to roughly $7 billion, Press TV reported.
The gas network between the two countries has the capacity to increase the annual transfer of gas up to 15 billion cm.
The gas transfer through Bazargan border point can be increased to even higher levels by developing the network in order to export more gas not only to Turkey, but also to other countries.