Baku, Azerbaijan, June 21
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Renewing gas exports from Turkmenistan to Iran would be helpful for improving Ashgabat’s gas export strategy, Bruce Pannier, US expert on Central Asia and energy issues, told Trend.
“Renewing gas supplies to Iran would help but that requires Turkmen and Iranian authorities to resolve their current dispute over a debt from more than a decade ago,” he said.
“However, if they could resolve it, Turkmenistan could start shipping 6-8 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Iran quickly. Even if that deal remains a barter deal, gas for Iranian goods, it should be attractive to Turkmenistan.”
The two nations have been locked in the dispute for years, with Turkmenistan claiming it is owed about $1.8 billion in payments for gas delivered to Iran.
Pannier went on to add that Turkmenistan could also consider striking some deal with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan for small pipelines that would bring 1-2 billion cubic meters of gas per year to areas in western Uzbekistan or northern Afghanistan.
The expert believes that Turkmenistan should give priority to neighboring countries for its gas exports.
“Pipelines to neighboring countries can be built in a short time, or in the case of Iran the pipelines are already there. If the situation improves those pipelines could later be extended to countries farther away,” he added.
Earlier, Iranian media reported that Turkmenistan and Iran will return to discussing their gas dispute, in order to reach an agreement and avoid litigation.
IRNA quoted the Executive Director of the National Gas Company of Iran Hamid-Reza Araqi as saying that Iranian and Turkmen experts will explore the differences between the positions of Iran and Turkmenistan in their gas dispute.
In December 2017, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instructed to prepare documents for appeal to the international arbitration court, within the framework of which it was necessary to discuss the issue of Iran's existing significant debt to pay for Turkmenistan's natural gas.
As stated in the message of the state news service of Turkmenistan Dovlet Habarlary (TDH), in the course of meetings and negotiations with representatives of the Iranian side, consensus on the issue could not be reached.
"In order to solve this problem in a mutually acceptable and objective manner, the Iranian partners proposed to apply to the international arbitration court," TDH noted at the time.
After hearing the arguments of the senior officials of the state concern Turkmengaz, the president of Turkmenistan “instructed to support the proposal of the National Gas Company of Iran regarding appeal to the international court of arbitration and to prepare relevant documents for the upcoming procedure", TDH reported.
Iran receives Turkmen gas through several pipe strings, and the main one is the Korpeje-Kurt-Kui gas pipeline, which was put into operation in December 1995. In 2010, an additional pipeline was launched along the route of Dovletabad-Sarahs-Hangeran.
Turkmenistan, as reported earlier, was forced to restrict the supply of Turkmen natural gas to Iran from January 1, 2017 due to debts.
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