Iran will increase gas imports from Turkmenistan in winter 2009 by 40 percent, Press TV wrote with reference to forecast of a senior official of the Iranian Oil Ministry.
"Iran plans to complete the construction of gas pipeline in length of 30 kilometers to import Turkmen gas," Deputy Oil Minister, Azizullah Ramezani, said.
Turkmenistan agreed to pump about 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas from its south-eastern field Dolatabad to the Iranian territory in August.
The gas will be supplied to the Hangiran gas processing plant, located on the north-eastern Iran, in the Mashhad city, via the Dovletabat-Sarakhs-Hangiran gas pipeline, which is expected to be opened by late December.
The new calculations show that gas imports from the neighboring northern country [Turkmenistan] will be increased by 40 percent in the coming winter," MEHR news agency reported with reference to Ramezani.
Formerly, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) Managing Director Alireza Gharibi said that such deal would prevent the disconnection of gas, as happened in 2008, when as a result of gas cut off 11 Iranian cities remained with little heating.
Referring to the technical difficulties and complexity in financing the servicing of pipelines, Turkmenistan suspended gas supplies to Iran in one of the coldest winter of the decade.
Turkmenistan owns world's fourth largest gas reserve and also is the largest producer in Central Asia, producing more than 75 billion cubic meters (2.65 trillion cubic feet) of gas per year.
China became another country importing Turkmen gas, which can be a reason for Turkmenistan to reduce high gas prices. The growing demand for Turkmen gas could be an expensive option for Iran.