Azerbaijan, Baku, September 6 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova, T. Jafarov/
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh is to visit Turkmenistan on Friday, Mehr agency reported on Thursday.
During the two-day visit he will meet with his Turkmen counterpart. Gas sales will be discussed at the meeting.
At the same time, SWAP and fuel transit as well as gas replacement with products will be discussed.
In 1995 Iran signed an agreement with Turkmenistan on gas imports on the basis of Ashgabat pledging to supply the Islamic republic with eight billion cubic meters of gas per year.
In 2007 the countries signed an agreement under which Turkmenistan pledged to supply Iran with 14 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Till 2000, Turkmenistan supplied Iran with 3.3 billion cubic meters of gas and currently this figure reached six billion cubic meters per year.
In winter 2010 the opening ceremony of the Dovlatabad-Sarahs gas pipeline was held in the presence of the presidents of Iran and Turkmenistan. Currently, the second phase of construction is carried out. When complete, the capacity of the pipeline will constitute 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
From 1997 to 2010, Iran carried out swap delivery of Turkmen and Kazakh oil to the Gulf countries worth $1 per barrel. During this period, Iran's profit amounted to $146 million. However starting from 2010, foreign companies rejected these deals because of international sanctions on Iran.