Gas Export to Turkey Resumes After 94 Days

EghtesadOnline: Iran has resumed gas exports to Turkey after Botas, the country's state oil and gas company, said it fixed the ruptured gas pipeline after 94 day, the head of National Iranian Gas Company's Dispatching Department said.

News ID: ۷۵۰۳۸۸

05 July 2020

“Repairs are over and gas flow has restarted at a rate of 20 million cubic meters per day. It will reach 30 mcm/d as soon as the pressure is adjusted,” Mohammadreza Joulaee was quoted as saying by ILNA.

The flow of Iranian natural gas to Turkey was disrupted three months ago due to a pipeline explosion. It was the tenth such incident since 2001, he added.

Gas flow to the neighboring country, started in 2001, has been interrupted at least 10 times mostly due to terrorist attacks carried out by the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Due to Turkey’s inordinate delays and reluctance in repairing the pipeline, NIGC had officially notified Turkey's Botas that it would take lawful action if necessary.

Turkish officials put the blame on Covid-19 for the delays in fixing the problem, but the NIGC was unimpressed saying  the pipeline could have been repaired in less than a week.

The NIGC official said talks to renew (or terminate) the last agreement would start soon. It is likely that the Turkish government could replace Iran with other suppliers (from Russia or Azerbaijan) apparently because of lower prices.

Iran started selling gas to Turkey in 2001 and is the second largest gas supplier to the country after Russia. Annual export of the fuel is in around 10 billion cubic meters.