Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 7/ Trend M. Moezzi
Service to Iranian homes has continued uninterrupted despite a 50 per cent drop in gas imports from Turkmenistan and record low temperatures, Mehr news agency reported.
Turkmengaz Company has halved its gas exports to Iran without any prior notice down to some 10 million cubic metres, sources told Mehr news agency, warning that the exports may even decline further later on.
The sudden cut came as Iranian households used a record 556 million cubic metres of natural gas to heat their homes.
Iran's questions about the drop in gas imports haven't been answered by Turkmengaz. One reason may be increased exports to Russia.
Another reason could be the harsh weather in Central Asia, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) managing director, Javad Owji said on Sunday.
Managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company Hossein Bidarmaghz said earlier that the Central Asian country currently exports about 14 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Iran. Ashgabat has expressed its willingness to increase the amount to 20 billion cubic metres per annum, he added.
Iran has spent $1.2 billion on natural gas pipelines to transfer gas from its South Pars field in the Persian Gulf to the north and northeast. Finished last year, the pipelines are a corridor for the swap and transit of natural gas to East Asia and Europe and to supply six of Iran's Northern provinces.