Iran has reduced natural gas exports to Turkey after Turkmenistan halted supplies to Iran, an Iranian energy official said on Tuesday, adding he expected Turkmen deliveries to be restored by the end of the week.
An Iranian news agency, Fars, said Iran had slashed its daily sales to Turkey by around 75% to 4-5 million cubic metres due to Turkmenistan’s move and the cold winter weather.
Iranian officials said on Monday Turkmenistan had stopped daily exports of up to 23 million cubic metres of gas to Iran. The Central Asia producer blamed operational factors but some Iranian media suggested it might be linked to a pricing dispute.
Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he had “strongly urged” Turkmenistan to resolve the technical problems in a phone conversation with his Turkmen counterpart.
Iran, a small net importer of gas despite its huge reserves, normally gets 5% of its needs from Turkmenistan and the supply disruptions caused shortages in some northern areas.
People queued for alternative fuel to heat their homes and formed long lines at bakeries as they could not cook at home because of lack of gas, state television footage showed.
“I had to wait three hours for 20 litres of oil,” one women said in Golestan province. “I have a one-month-old baby at home. What should I do?” one angry man said.
Mottaki said he hoped Turkmenistan would soon resume deliveries and an official of the National Iranian Gas Company said he expected this happen in the next few days.
“Our prediction is that, by the end of the week, gas exports from Turkmenistan to Iran would be restored,” Ebadollah Ghanbari, who heads the public relations unit of the National Iranian Gas Company, told newswire Reuters.
Ghanbari confirmed that Iran had reduced deliveries to Turkey, without giving details: “We have had some decrease in the export of gas to Turkey.”
Iran sits on the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia but analysts say sanctions, politics and construction delays have slowed the sector’s development in the Opec member.
Turkmen officials were unavailable for comment. Turkmen media have said an Iranian delegation visited Ashgabat on December 26-27 to discuss gas prices.
In November, Turkmenistan reached an agreement to raise the price on gas it delivers to Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom by 30%.
Iranian deputy foreign minister Mahdi Safari said Iran and Turkmenistan had also been discussing price issues “for some time now” but that this was not related to the gas supply cut.
Turkey, which is seeking to become a regional energy transit hub, has signed a natural gas supply contract with Iran but some EU countries have misgivings because Iran is subject to UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Ankara is also involved in the consortium planning to build the Nabucco pipeline to take Caspian gas to Europe.
The consortium, which includes Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Romania’s Transgaz, has secured gas from Azerbaijan but also sees Iran and Turkmenistan as other possible suppliers for the route. (Reuters)
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