Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, 15 February / correspondent. Trend A. Hasanov / The Governments of Turkmenistan and Iran on Saturday signed an agreement on gas cooperation, the official Turkmen sources reported.
The signing took place in the two-day visit of the Turkmenian President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov in Iran. From the Turkmen side the signing was made by the Vice-Prime T. Taghiyev, and from Iran - Oil Minister Nozari Golamhusseyn.
Iran, so far is the only alternative buyer of Turkmen gas, the main export volume - each year to 50 billion cubic meters is bought by Russia. Gas pipeline from the Turkmen fields Korpeje to the Iranian city of Kurt-Kui has been in operation for about ten years now, the power of about 8 billion cubic meters of gas. Tehran said its interest to increase imports to 14 billion cubic meters.
Today, daily volume of Turkmen gas that goes to the northern provinces of Iran is about 23 million cubic meters of gas.
At a press conference on Saturday, Berdymuhamedov said that Turkmenistan agreed to cooperate with Iran in the development of new gas fields, as well as in capacity building the gas pipeline network.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that further cooperation in the construction of railways, particularly in the construction of the rail corridor from Turkmenistan to the Iranian city of Gorgan Bereket on one side and to the Kazakhstani Uzen on the other.
At the summit in addition to the prospects for expanding cooperation in trade, transport and energy sectors, the issues related to the settlement of the legal status of the Caspian Sea.