Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Turkmenistan has promised to not decrease gas delivery to Iran during winter season, according to Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, who started negotiatons with Turkmen top officials on Nov.7 in Ashgabat.
Mehr News Agency reported that during the meetings between Zanganeh and Turkmenistan's President Kurbankulu Berdimuhammedov, as well as Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Turkmen Vice-President Khajeh Mohammadov in oil and gas affairs, Turkmenistan promised to keep high gas delivery to Iran during this winter.
According to the contract, Turkmenistan should supply 40 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iran, but Mehr quoted Deputy Director of National Iranian Gas Company, Abdolhossein Samari as saying that the current gas delivery from Turkmenistan to Iran is about 23 to 24 million cubic meters per day.
Iran's housing gas consumption during the last two weeks tripled to 350 million cubic meters, compared to summer.
Earlier, Mohammad-Taqi Amanpour, advisor to the Iranian oil minister, said on Aug.10 that Iran has purchased €2 billion worth of natural gas from Turkmenistan in recent year.
Iran gets Turkmen gas via several branches. The Korpeje - Kurt-Kui gas pipeline, commissioned in December 1995, is the main one. Its capacity was brought to eight billion cubic meters per year with the potential of increasing the capacity to 14 billion cubic meters. The Iranian National Gas Export Company acts as a gas buyer.