Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said that Turkey has asked Iran to increase its natural gas exports to its northwestern neighbor, the state IRIB TV website reported.
Oji said that Iran’s current gas exports to Turkey stands at 24 million cubic meters per day on average and expressed Tehran’s readiness to provide Ankara with more natural gas, said the report.
The two countries have held negotiations in the past over an increase in the gas exports to Turkey, he said, adding that Iran has a capacity to export an average of 36-40 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Turkey.
According to the report, Turkey currently has natural gas purchase deals with countries such as Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals with Nigeria and Algeria.
In 2009, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement to transfer up to 35 billion cubic meters of Iran’s natural gas to Europe via Turkey.
Earlier this year, Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said exporting Iran’s natural gas to Europe through Turkey would be beneficial for both Tehran and Ankara.
In a meeting with Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz in Tehran, Rahimi stressed the need for implementation of all agreements reached between Tehran and Ankara on energy cooperation.
Yildiz said that his country was ready to increase its cooperation with Iran in the energy field and pointed out that Ankara was determined to help Tehran transit its natural gas to Europe.
According to Iranian media, the gas pipeline to transfer Iran’s natural gas to Europe is scheduled to become operational in 2014.
According to Iran’s Petroleum Ministry, Iran’s proved natural gas reserves are about 29,610 cubic kilometers or about 15.8 percent of world’s total reserves. It has the world’s second largest reserves after Russia.
Iran can step in after Turkey break with Gazprom
Iran said that it was ready to boost its gas exports to neighboring Turkey, after Turkish Botas ended its deal with Russia’s Gazprom, a senior official told the Mehr news agency.
“Turkey has previously had talks with Iran in regard to increase the volume of our natural gas export … Iran is ready to boost its export upon the Turkey’s request,” Javad Oji, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) told Mehr.
Oji said: “Iran’s gas export to Turkey has increased by 12 percent from March and NIGC has averagely delivered more than 24 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkish Botas per day.”
He also said Iran had the capacity to produces 600 million cubic meters of gas.
In early October, Turkish Botas ended its contract with Russia’s producer Gazprom for buying annually 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas due to pricing disagreement.
When Oji asked about the possibility of any modification of the price of Iran’s exporting gas, he said the deal had “open conditions”.
“Both sides have authority to hold talks over the price change based on the conditions and gas global market price … But so far no talks in this regards have been held,” Oji said.
Iran has also excluded Gazprom from development of one of its major oil fields project.
Source: agencies
via Turkey urges more natural gas imports from Iran – Tehran Times.
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