Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.18/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran has increased gas production of Hasheminejad refinery, in northeast of the country, by 12 percent, the PANA News agency reported.
The move aims at meeting Iran's gas demands following the recent halt in the nation's gas imports from Turkmenistan.
The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qosemi on Wednesday as saying that a price dispute had led to a halt in gas supplies from Turkmenistan.
Deputy Iranian Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad also said on Friday that although Turkmenistan has suspended supplying gas to Iran, the country has no difficulty fueling up the northern and north-eastern power plants.
Currently, over 90 percent of the power plants' furnace oil storage capacity is full, the Mehr News Agency quoted Behzad as saying.
Behzad went on to note that over 83 percent of the power plants' diesel oil storage capacity is also full.
This is the second time during past five years that Turkmenistan cuts gas supplies to Iran in a cold season, while this country reduced gas export to Iran last winter by 10 mcm per day.
Head of Turkmenistan's state gas company has claimed that the country resumed gas supplies to Iran after a brief stoppage for repairs along a stretch of pipeline linking the two countries.
According to Reuters, Turkmengaz Chairman Sahatmurad Mamedov said after Qasemi's statement that Iran had requested the halt and denied an Iranian news report on November 14 that the former Soviet republic and Iran were in a dispute over pricing.
"We stopped at their request, made repairs and re-launched supplies," he said on the sidelines of an energy conference. "We're now supplying the same volumes as before, in line with our contract."
Mamedov declined to specify volumes or the dates on which supplies were halted.
Mamedov said there had been no disagreement on price, but that a stretch of the pipeline between Artyk in Turkmenistan and Luftabad in Iran needed repairs, which had now been completed.
A day earlier, Hossein Esmaeili Shahmirzadi, general director for Europe, America and Caspian Sea countries at Iran's Ministry of Petroleum also said the Islamic republic was receiving gas from Turkmenistan.
"We have no financial issues with Turkmenistan. We are importing gas from the country," he said during the same energy conference on Thursday.
"Perhaps there were some technical issues," he said through an interpreter in Russian, when asked about the stoppage.
Iran buys almost a third of Turkmenistan's exported gas, relying on it for heating in winter and using it year round to meet industrial demand in regions distant from the country's own fields clustered around the Persian Gulf.
Iranian imports of Turkmen gas averaged just over 1 billion cubic feet a day from July 2011 to June 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, but imports are much higher in winter and lower in summer.
Head of the Iranian National Gas Company Javad Owji said last month that Turkmenistan's gas exports to Iran reduced by 52 per cent in the current year compared to last year, while now this country supplies only 4 to 5 mcm of gas per day to Iran. Turkmenistan is obligated to provide Iran with 14 bcm of gas per year (nearly 40 mcm per day) through two pipelines: the Korpeje-Kordkuy route which was commissioned in 1996, and the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline which came on stream in 2010. The total capacity of pipelines is about 20 bcm per year.
Iran has been importing natural gas from Turkmenistan since 1997. Western-imposed banking restrictions have made it difficult for Iran's suppliers and buyers to trade with Tehran.
